


A very Merthur Christmas

by dance_in_moonlight



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arthur is a sweetheart, Christmas Fluff, Christmas fic, First Christmas, Fluff, Gwaine Being Gwaine (Merlin), M/M, Merlin is Clumsy, Merthur - Freeform, Modern AU, cute dates, no magic, tiny little crumb of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27820360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dance_in_moonlight/pseuds/dance_in_moonlight
Summary: Merlin is working in the college library for his thesis when he manages to run into a stranger - literally. Coincidence wants them to meet again, and Merlin soon finds himself dating the gorgeous Arthur Pendragon, who is not only a celebrity but also a big fan of Christmas.Tune in every second day for a sweet chapter of this fic-advent calendar to lead you through December!
Relationships: Gwen/Lancelot (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 48
Kudos: 172





	1. A handsome Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Hi folks,  
> I'm excited you're here! This little fic is meant to be a bi-daily treat leading up to Christmas, with lots of cute dates and fluff.  
> I'm going to keep it very light-hearted for that reason, I hope you'll enjoy it!
> 
> I based it on a promt list by the wonderful [promptingyou](https://promptingyou.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! 
> 
> If you want a sneak peak, check out the moodboard I made on [my tumblr](https://dance-in-moonlight.tumblr.com/post/636253929836068864/a-very-merthur-christmas-moodboard) !
> 
> The prompt for this chapter is "cold hands".  
> Enjoy!

_October_

_Monday_

London was beautiful in October. It always was, at least to true Londoners like Merlin. There was always a buzz of background noises, always a light here and some people there, cabs and cars and bikes roaming the streets at any time of day.   
All the buzz could also be annoying at times, especially when one found themselves in a hurry.   
Merlin cursed under his breath as he paced down the street. He was already late, the people clogging his way didn't help. Everyone was in a hurry to escape the cold that autumn had brought, and a shoulder hit him every other step along the pavement. The golden light illuminating the street in front of him and the trees on its sides painted a beautiful picture, but he couldn’t enjoy the view at the moment.   
  
When he finally stepped into the entry hall of the Imperial College's library, he was already ten minutes over time. He held his leather bag tighter to his side and hurried inside, trying to calm his heavy breathing to an acceptable level in the quiet library. He walked down the main isle hurriedly as he looked around for his friends, a rather difficult task in the giant building and its maze of bookshelves. 

"Merl, over here!" 

With a relieved sigh he turned into the direction the voice came from and found his friends around a roundtable. Merlin quietly passed a few desks with working students and their piles of books next to their Notebooks before he found himself surrounded by ceiling-high bookshelves made of dark and heavy wood. Some of them had ladders attached to them because they reached up high into the old building's ceiling on two different levels, creating a beautiful sight. The whole place had a mysterious and historical vibe and he absolutely loved it.   
With an apologetic smile he dropped his leather bag on a free chair and took his jacket off while eyeing each of his friends. 

"I'm so sorry guys." 

Gwaine, his childhood best friend, had his heavy boots on the table, a book in his lap and a lecture in form of a power-point presentation opened on the IPad next to his legs on the table. He studied sports physiology and sports therapy in his masters after taking a break from competing in various national teams. There was almost no discipline he wasn't great at, but he wanted to go beyond just working out and help people with his work instead.   
On Gwaine's left, much straighter and tidier, sat Lance. He looked up at Merlin's apology and gave him a gentle smile. He'd met Lance (or Lancelot as they called him) in the first semester of their psychology bachelor's, and now they were in a research group for the doctorate together.   
Gwen, Lancelot's girlfriend, gave Merlin a grin and handed him a stack of books. 

"Busy day huh? You can make it up by returning these." 

She was a professor at the Imperial College of London and had just started her third semester of teaching European History. Merlin had always thought of history as a finished process, something you’d finish studying at some point; but Gwen was always reading everything from history books to scientific papers, teaching him better.

Merlin took the books from her and rolled his eyes dramatically while already turning around to leave for the bookshelves. 

"Gaius was sick, so I had to take his patients too. And you know how some people are when their routine gets interrupted." 

Merlin had the incredible luck to work at Dr. Gaius Callahan’s practise as a psychologist. The head doctor was very understanding and had helped him create a work schedule that still allowed him to work on 'upgrading' his Masters to a doctorate. If only it was as easy as that. But Merlin loved his job, loved helping people and learning about the complexity of the human mind. He soaked up wisdom like a sponge, studying wasn't the problem. Fitting all the required research into his life was.   
He eyed the colour tags and abbreviations on the backs of the books he was carrying on his way to the psychology shelves, to find out where exactly those came from. Lance had probably already worked through them and taken notes, so Merlin didn't have to anymore. Still he'd try to take some others back and then work in record time to catch up, maybe he could contribute something Lance hasn't thought of yet. He wanted to make it up to him somehow. Of course Lancelot didn't mind, he was an angel of a person, but Merlin just hated to leave people waiting. 

He looked around now, watching the other students or visitors fishing books out of the high shelves around him. It was a busy place, but still quiet, the perfect atmosphere in his opinion. Merlin liked to imagine that in the most quiet corners of the library, when nobody was flipping pages or scratching a pen on paper, one could hear the books whisper. Logically he knew that was impossible, but he liked to dream, and the mysterious aura of this place fed into his creativity.

"Shit-", he exclaimed a tad too loud when he crashed into something - or someone. His walking speed was reversed and sent him backwards, he stumbled and fell flat on his ass. The books in his arms spilled on the floor in between Merlin's legs and in front of a pair of brown leather Budapester shoes as he used his arms to soften his fall and push himself up into a sitting position. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't pay attention to where I was walking", Merlin apologized immediately and made an attempt to get onto his knees. He locked his ankles and almost fell back before he caught his balance, and then quickly gathered the books, hoping to escape the situation as soon as possible. 

"Don't worry, I played rugby in college", the victim of his accidental assault chuckled,"it takes a bit more to wrestle me down." 

The smooth, warm voice made Merlin look up involuntarily, like a magnet drawing in metal.   
Above him stood a tall blond man, not older than thirty. His face and body had better structure than Merlin's thesis ever would, and the sneaky smile had surely conquered hearts within seconds before. Somehow he had managed to run into a Versace model and literally thrown himself at his feet.   
Merlin realised his mouth was gaping a little bit as he kneeled in front of this gorgeous stranger, books clutched to his chest. 

"Uh, I-..." 

"Here", Versace said with a million-dollar smile and held out a perfect hand, "let me help you." 

Merlin took the surprisingly strong hand and allowed him to pull him back up onto his feet. 

"Your hands are ice cold", Versace stated surprised. Merlin felt a blush form on his face, how much more humiliating could this become? 

"Oh gosh I'm sorry! I literally just came in and my friends asked me to take those books back and I had a long day at work and, ugh…" 

He shook his head and clutched the books tighter, staring at them as if they knew how to get out of this situation. The thing was, right now he was very embarrassed and wanted to disappear into the void. But he was also very gay, and this absolute snack of a man in front of him wasn’t the type he’d usually talk to, he struggled to bring up the courage, so he had to enjoy this while he could, right?   
He shyly looked back up, eyes wandering up Versace's figure. From this new perspective he could get a much better view. The bright blue eyes were sparkling with what could be delight, he was a bit too flustered to be sure. The stranger let go of his hand - he had still been holding that?? - and handed him a book he'd missed instead. Merlin allowed himself one more glance at the beautiful combination of a dark read pullover with a white shirt collar sticking out, dark jeans and the dark caramel wool coat, before he looked up again. 

"Studying is hard, I get it. Believe me, I had to write quite a few papers. What are you working on?", Versace asked in a casual tone. Merlin bit his lip and did his best to fight the blush. Maybe no Versace model after all? Oh God, what if he was really smart? Smart _and_ handsome? And through some miracle Merlin didn't understand, actually interested in smalltalk with him?   
The psychologist in his brain reminded him to fix his body language and tone, and to stop putting himself beneath this man. Well, Merlin could think of _several_ ways he'd love to be-

"Thesis", he replied a little breathless and stepped over to the bookshelf to distract himself. He had managed to run into the guy exactly in front of the shelf he needed. 

"Congrats. Psychology, huh? Must be hard." 

"How did you - oh. The books", Merlin replied and shook his head at himself. He was so out of it today, he wasn't actually surprised anymore. He quickly sorted most of the books in, but one had to go into a higher shelf. 

"Well, of course it's hard now and then, but isn't every subject? I've never met someone who'd describe their studies as easy", he replied, balancing on his tippy toes as he tried to fit the last book back in. A strong arm came up from behind, took the book from him and placed it on the shelf. Versace's torso came close enough for Merlin to smell him, and his hormones decided to start a party between his heart and groin. Fuck. He smelled like chocolate and mint, fire and…Christmas. In October?

"You know you're supposed to put those on the 'return' trolleys, right?", he mumbled just by Merlin's ear with a chuckle that made the hairs on Merlin's neck stand up. No. No, no, no, enough of this, he had work to do here. Or maybe the work could wait? Just a few minutes more? 

"Yeah, I guess I should start doing that", he replied and grabbed the first book he saw that at least kind of fit his research topic. He clutched it to his chest and turned around quickly, looking at his blond opposite with the most open expression he could manage.   
_Ask him for his number.  
_ What can go wrong? He seems nice. At worst he'll say no.   
_Ask him if he comes here often.  
_ _Ask him if he likes to read.  
_ _Just make conversation, Merlin._

"You probably have to get back to your friends", Versace suspected with that goddamn Hollywood smile again. Merlin's heart squeezed painfully, there went his chance. 

"Oh…yeah, they're probably waiting", he replied with a nod, swallowing the disappointment. It was for the best probably, where could this have gone? Merlin didn't have time for dating anyway, and Versace was probably just here to pick up his super hot sugarbaby. Whatever.   
He stepped away from the shelf and into the general direction of his friends. 

"Um…sorry for running into you again. I'll keep my eyes up next time." 

"Forgiven and forgotten", Versace grinned and nodded his head at him.   
"Good luck with your thesis." 

"Thanks", Merlin smiled politely before he turned all the way and paced back past the high shelves to the table his friends sat at. Gwaine looked up from his phone when he noticed him, and lifted a brow. 

"Took you a while, the trolley's right around the corner, mate. Did you get lost?", he teased and tilted his head a little. Merlin sighed dramatically, took his bag off his chair and sank into it, then put the book on the table. 

"I ran into someone - literally. I fell flat on my butt, you'd have loved it", he confessed and felt his nose and cheeks heat up a little at the fresh memory. Gwaine laughed out loud, a warm bark ripping through the silence around them. Immediately "shh" was hissed from every direction, and Gwaine slapped a hand over his mouth as his laugh changed to little hiccup sounds instead.   
Merlin looked over at Gwen and Lancelot, who were grinning just as much. 

"Maybe we should do this another day", Lancelot offered grinning, "You're even more scatterbrained today than usually." 

Merlin grumbled something in response and opened his book in front of him to change the topic. He was here for his studies after all, maybe he should actually use his time to study.   
With a sigh he skimmed the table of contents for something useful. He was proud to say most of the topics he read were nothing new to him, but one chapter caught his eye. Eager to find some sources and citations to include into his paper he flipped to the corresponding page and grabbed pen and paper to take notes. 

He had little time and lots of work. 


	2. An Office Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin is just minding his business at work when he gets a surprising second chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks,  
> here comes the second treat! I hope you all had a great start of the month :)  
> I don't have much to add today, have fun reading!
> 
> Today's prompt is "goofy smiles".

_ _

_ October  _

_ Wednesday _

Merlin shifted in his leather armchair to find a more comfortable position for his numb butt. He was sitting a lot lately, whether it was to work on his research for his doctoral thesis or his job as a psychologist, and his body was starting to complain.   
His patient sat across him on the plush couch, clutching his journal tightly with shaking hands. Merlin noticed how he hunched over, pulling his head towards his shoulders as if he wanted to curl up and disappear. He made a note in the file in his lap before addressing the patient directly. 

"You don't need to share anymore if you don't want to, Jimmy", he said sympathetically, "we talked about this." 

The young man nodded to himself, then closed the journal and straightened up a little bit. 

"So do you feel like writing down your thoughts and worries helped you?", he continued, watching him closely. Jimmy pressed his lips together as his eyes darted from the floor to Merlin's face for a second, then back down for a few seconds before they fixed on a point near the window. 

"Yeah, I think so", he answered quietly. Merlin was pleased to notice more security than usual. 

"How so?" 

Jimmy's eyes moved back into his lap, staring presumably at his tightly squeezed hands he found there.   
"Well… It helped to name it? Bringing it down to a few words made it more approachable, maybe, I don’t know. It felt like some of those things weren't as huge as I thought before I wrote them down." 

With a pleased smile Merlin shut the notebook with his files and glanced at the silver watch on the little side table that stood next to his armchair. 

" Very good. I fear we're all out of time for today, but I think that was a great session."

His opposite nodded and got up along with him, grabbing his jacket on their way through the small room toward the door. Merlin put the notebook in its designated drawer while he waited for his patient to get ready. 

"I think you're doing great", he smiled when both were finally ready to leave the room, "keep journaling until the next appointment. I believe Mr. Fraser already gave you one?" 

Jimmy nodded as they walked down the short hallway to the front desk and waiting area. 

"Yes, all set, in two weeks", he confirmed. 

"Alright, see you then", Merlin nodded and stopped by the secretary Mr. Fraser at the front desk, eyeing the opened calendar app on the computer screen to find out how long his break would be. 

"Bye, doc!" 

Merlin gave him a little wave before he leaned over the secretary's shoulder and studied the part of the table dedicated to him. The last patient had been his third of the day, he was exhausted and looking forward to a break. Unfortunately there was another patient in the timetable, one he didn't remember having. 

"Uh, Mordred? I think there's been a switch-up for my  _ one o'clock _ ." 

The raven-haired young man next to him raised a brow, stared a few seconds expectantly before shaking his head so his curls danced around his head. 

"I told you yesterday, Gaius got something important and since Miss Hunter couldn't reschedule, she agreed to see you instead. I sent you a mail", he finished with a disappointed tone. 

"Oh… Sorry, I kinda abandoned my phone and read", Merlin apologised with a lopsided grin and straightened up with a sigh, eyeing the table and the time once more. Maybe he could at least have a cup of coffee before he had to see his next patient.   
The office's door on the opposite wall opened with a squeak and footsteps approached, sounding dull on the linoleum. 

"How can we help you?", Merlin chirped without looking up, assuming the person was waiting for them to open a conversation. 

"I'm here for my prescription", a familiar voice replied, and Merlin felt his blood boil up. What were the odds? He slowly lifted his gaze, following the broad chest behind the counter up to a handsome face, confirming what his ears had already told him. Versace boy was grinning at him in all his glory, and Merlin was pretty sure those blue eyes and white teeth were actually blinding him. 

"Of course Mr. Pendragon, it's already waiting to be picked up in the backroom. I'll get it", Mordred smiled and basically jumped out of his chair, then eagerly made his way down the corridor.  Merlin couldn't do much better than staring at Versace dumbly, he didn't know how much time passed, but this man was absolutely stunning. The universe had decided to let them meet again, was that a sign? His second chance maybe? 

"I thought you studied psychology", Versace said with an amused expression, cocking his head to the side. Merlin realised he was waiting for an answer, so his brain began to move through the memory. Yes, and? He did, didn't he? Why would he ask- oooh. 

"I never said I wasn't working next to writing my thesis", he replied slowly with a slightly awkward smile. He had about a million things to say, but none of them came out. 

"Are you following me or something?" 

Versace giggled and leaned forward, one arm resting on the counter to support his torso. That way he was much closer to Merlin, and his body language was open and relaxed, as if he was completely comfortable in this situation. 

"Maybe I am", he replied, no -  _ purred _ , and if Merlin didn't know better he'd thought that this gorgeous Apollo in front of him was  _ flirting _ . 

"I… Oh. I'm not really mad", he stuttered, frowning at his own words, "no wait, I didn't… I mean, uh…" 

"I'm Arthur by the way", Versace continued, visibly amused by Merlin's antics. Merlin's heart picked up a beat, he had a  _ name _ now. Arthur. What a pretty name. Arthur, Arthur, Arthur. Rolls off the tongue. Fits him perfectly. 

"I'm Merlin", he replied softly, "and this is the second time I've made an ass out of myself in front of you. I'm frankly mortified." 

Arthur giggled again, a wonderfully warm sound a bit higher pitched than his speaking voice, and he rolled his sparkling eyes at Merlin's words. 

"That happens to the best of us. And I think it's cute." 

Merlin felt his cheeks burn, then his nose joined in, and when the heat reached his ears he knew he looked like a tomato. His eyes went down immediately, and his psychologist brain explained that he had been right about the flirting, and that he still didn't view himself worthy of the interest of a man of that caliber. That didn't mean he didn't appreciate it, or that he wanted it to stop. 

"Do you? Maybe next time you see me I'll accidentally drop a scalding hot coffee onto you, would that still be cute?", he asked with more fake confidence than he actually had right now. He was absolutely thrilled, but just as nervous. Merlin was better at analysing such situations than maneuvering them himself. 

Arthur's eyebrow peaked and his gaze seemed to focus even more on him, there was another little head tilt and Merlin was worrying what the hell he had said to trigger that. Nothing bad, right? 

"Next time and coffee sounds great, actually", he said quietly, and for a second Merlin thought he'd burst into pieces when his heart picked up a dangerous place. He seemed to have swallowed his tongue, the words he wanted to say died in his throat, so he stood there slack jawed and doe-eyed. 

"Are you free on Friday?", Arthur continued relaxed, still that amused little smile on his lips, but Merlin noticed just the  _ slightest _ sign of stress. So he  _ was _ human after all. 

"Yes. I mean I have a colloquium 'til two pm but-" 

"That's fine, I'll just text you?" 

"Uh…you don't have my number though", Merlin frowned thoughtfully. 

Arthur rolled his eyes and shook his head a little, but he was basically beaming at Merlin, filling him with so many emotions that he wanted to giggle. 

"That's the point where you write it down for me, Merlin", he clarified. 

Merlin's blush deepened as he reached for a sticky note from the stack on the desk, and then neatly wrote down his mobile number. He folded it before handing it to Arthur, who gently put it in his wallet before placing that back in his coat pocket. 

"Sorry", Mordred interrupted when he returned, "I had to fix a mistake and print it again. Here you go." 

He handed Arthur the little sheet, who proceeded the same way as with Merlin's note, before he winked at Merlin and turned towards the door. 

"Friday then", he hummed, and with that he left. Merlin stared at the closed door, resisting the urge to pinch himself. Had he really just been asked out by Versace boy?

"Did that just happen?", he asked Mordred, who leaned against the desk and crossed his arms in front of his chest, eyeing his coworker. 

"I was waiting in the corridor for a few seconds because i didn't want to interrupt. Congrats, doc, you scored a date with one of London's most wanted bachelors." 

Apparently Merlin's confused face was not the reaction Mordred had hoped for, since he gasped and furrowed his brows in response. 

"Are you serious? Arthur Pendragon? His father owns Camelot" - ah, the famous museum containing dozens of artifacts and telling Britain's story - "and a lot of libraries and art and funds… He's a millionaire! And Mr. Pendragon, uh, junior was on the cover of GQ magazine a few times, Prada had a campaign with him-" 

"Should have been Versace", Merlin replied thoughtfully. 

"What?" 

"Nothing. Look, I don't know a lot about celebrities because I don't have time to read that kind of stuff, but I don't believe that's him. I mean he  _ looks _ like a model, but he seems…normal? Why would he come here if he could go to a really expensive prestigious psychologist instead?"

"First of all,  _ rude _ ", Mordred pointed out, "second: maybe he's decided to learn about us boring people. Who knows? But you have to take that chance, and you absolutely need to tell me everything that happens!" 

Merlin groaned and shook his head, relieved when the front door opened again to reveal a young woman. 

"We're not discussing this any further. I have a patient." 


	3. Coffe Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur have a lovely date in a cosy little coffee shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> I have to apologise, I forgot to a huge chunk of information about this fic in the beginning! I just updated the notes for chapter 1 and 2, please check them out if you haven't already!
> 
> TW: During their conversation Arthur mentions anxiety and panic attacks, but none of it is described in detail and they don't talk about it a lot. Just FYI.
> 
> Today's prompt is "hot chocolate vs hot coffee". Enjoy!

_ _

_ October _

_ Friday _

Merlin's mobile phone was very silent. Achingly silent.  Arthur had texted him the day before to confirm their date and voice his excitement about it, and Merlin had definitely  _ not _ squealed into his pillow for ten solid minutes after that, and if he had, nobody could prove it.   
Since then Arthur hadn't texted, and the digits on his lock screen moved closer to 2pm every time he checked it. Lancelot had noticed, and he was eyeing Merlin whenever he thought he wasn't looking. The lecturer did only little to keep Merlin's attention, although he knew this was really important for his thesis he couldn't keep his thoughts from drifting to the date and Arthur.  Would he wear that gorgeous caramel coat again? A tight fitting jumper maybe, hugging his impressive chest, or perhaps a button-up? Would he have a scarf draped around his shoulders elegantly, or maybe a hat with his golden mane peaking out in the front? No matter what, he would look absolutely stunning, Merlin was sure of that. 

Right after their class was dismissed he shot up to his feet, checking his phone for the gazillionth time while trying to put on his jacket simultaneously.  Lancelot turned towards him in his chair, eyes narrowed a bit as he eyed him curiously. 

"Okay, what is this about? And why are you dressed so nicely?", he asked eventually. 

Merlin stilled and looked up from his phone, then down at himself. It was true, he wore his nice black skinny jeans with timberland boots and a cream knitted jumper on top, way nicer than his usual attire. 

"I have a date", he confessed sheepishly, "and he's the most handsome guy I've ever met. I'm super nervous." 

Lancelot's face softened as he got up, now putting on his jacket as well. 

"Don't let Gwaine hear that second part, you'll break his heart. I'm glad you're going out again though, your work has kept you a hermit for long enough", he said with a cheeky grin and an elbow to Merlin’s ribs while they left the room and followed the hallway to the front portal of the building.   
"Where did you meet him?" 

"Don't laugh", Merlin warned, and when Lancelot promised he continued, "it's the guy I ran into at the library on Monday. He came into the office and we talked a little, and then he asked me out." 

Lancelot barely suppressed the chuckle that came up his throat, but Merlin appreciated him trying. 

"That's a good story to tell at game nights or something, great start", he grinned. "So you're going right now? Is he picking you up?" 

Merlin shook his head and shivered as they stepped out into the cold. 

"I don't know, he's supposed to text me." 

To confirm he pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it to find a new message. He hadn't even heard the notification over their conversation. 

"He says he's waiting on the edge of the campus. I better get over there." 

They hugged goodbye just before Merlin began to pace across the campus to the place Arthur had described to him, anxious to make him wait as little as possible.   
His heartbeat picked up in pace, he was about to go on a date with the most beautiful man he'd ever talked to. And this time they'd be alone for a much longer time, time to fit meaningful conversations in and to get to know each other. Hopefully. There was a slim chance Arthur could be vain or boring, each extreme on the spectrum, but Merlin was hoping neither would be the case. 

His date was waiting by a tree near the parking lot, fists in his pockets as he watched the countless students leaving the many buildings. Merlin took a second to take him in before he'd notice him approach. Arthur was wearing his caramel winter coat which revealed a pair of grey jeans and a black jumper. He'd adjusted to the recent drop in temperature with black boots, a knitted scarf and a beanie. Merlin took a look around to find possible photographers, because this could very well be a winter photoshoot. He couldn't quite believe he was about to get coffee with this man.   
Arthur's gaze finally found him and his face lit up almost immediately. He smiled honestly and his eyes had that nice little sparkle again when Merlin reached him. 

"Hi", he smiled. Merlin was glad he didn't extend his hand or go for a hug, because physical greetings on first dates were weird and uncomfortable and he was glad to skip it. 

"Hi", Merlin replied and clutched his hands in front of his body, "where are we going?" 

Arthur began to move, chuckled as he walked down the pavement, Merlin following along.   
  
"You'll see. It's a nice little place, I think you'll like it." 

"Very mysterious", Merlin chuckled. He  _ could _ have been anxious now, worrying where the hell this guy was going to take him, but he felt calm, for some unknown reason he trusted him with this.   
"So, how was your day?" 

"Mh, boring", Arthur replied with a shrug. He was quiet for a few seconds, then shook his head and corrected himself.   
"Actually it was stressful, but what  _ made _ it stressful was also absolutely boring."    
  
Merlin quirked a brow, causing Arthur to giggle when he saw it. Merlin quickly learned to like that sound a lot.    
  
"I mean I'm kind of…trying to take matters into my own hands instead of letting my father and the PAs dictate and plan everything. But that means dealing with adult stuff, and nobody told me that would be so dry." 

He said the last part in a silly tone, aware of how vain it might sound otherwise. Merlin realised he knew nothing about Arthur except for what Mordred had told him, and if that was true he'd have a lot more trouble relating to him.   
  
"I'm sorry, I sound like an ass", Arthur interrupted his thoughts, and Merlin observed how he frantically moved his hands through the air, "I just haven't been on a serious date in ages and you're so cute and I really don't want to leave a bad impression, but I think I just did." He looked like a panicked fawn, and Merlin's heart warmed a little at the sight. It was adorable, and he was thrilled to know that Arthur took this seriously. 

"No you didn't", Merlin assured warmly, "becoming independent is always hard, whether it happens sooner or later. May I ask what your plans are?" 

"You may", Arthur chuckled and directed him across a pedestrian crossing to the other side of the road, "first of all I'll buy my apartment back from my father - yeah, I know - and then I want to find a different job. I don't mind holding a position on the company's board, but I want to do my own thing you know? My friends think it's funny that I want to get out of this. Is it?"

He looked over at Merlin, an honest and open expression on his face as he waited for his reply. Merlin took a second to think about it, to try and view himself in Arthur's position. He could only assume what his life had been like, but he didn't know for sure. And wasn't it always worth it to chase one's dreams?

"I don't think they're good friends if they don't support you", he began, "and I think it's perfectly fine to define yourself without your father and his… Legacy? Or name, maybe. You don't have to be what he or the public expect you to be. I uh… I have to admit that I don't read a lot of news from, uh, that direction, so I'm not really-"

"I figured as much", Arthur interrupted with a lopsided smile, "it's refreshing, really."

Merlin chuckled, "happy to help! I'll keep ignoring all the magazines if that makes you happy."   
Now Arthur laughed, and Merlin melted into the sound. Arthur looked really pretty when he laughed, he noticed, the skin around his sparkling eyes crinkled and his perfect teeth showed those plump lips. He looked carefree and really young for the moment. 

"Merlin", he laughed, "You're fantastic." 

Merlin ducked his head to hide the traitorous blush that creeped up his cheeks and to his ears. 

Luckily Arthur's attention was caught by a door they approached, he opened it for him and waited. Merlin looked around for a second, he hadn't paid attention to where they went. They were in a busy street with cars and pedestrians bustling around as was usual for London. He focused back on his date and went through the door, which led to a bookshop. Merlin saw at least ten large bookshelves with tables full of more books in between, but when Arthur led him right through the shop he discovered that it stretched out far into the back. He had to remember this one for another day, his fingers already itched with the urge to explore the shelves. 

But Arthur led him out through a portal in the back, through a small hallway towards another door. 

"Oh", Merlin breathed when he found himself in a cosy little Cafe a second later. It was beautiful, with large floor-to-ceiling windows showing a backyard full of plants and a pond and a few bookshelves scattered around. There were only six tables as far as he could see, and a few people were already sitting in some comfortable armchairs, chatting over a cup of coffee. 

"May I?", Arthur reeled him back into their conversation, and Merlin noticed his hand on his shoulder, half grabbing his peacoat. He nodded and shrugged it off, then turned around to see his date hang both of their coats and scarves up neatly by the door. 

Merlin was very pleased to find that the black jumper was actually a turtleneck, and it accentuated his face so well that his eyes shone even more and his jaw looked sharper than a knife. Delicious. 

"Pick a seat", Arthur smiled, and Merlin decided on the one in the furthest corner by one of the large windows. They had barely sunk into the armchairs, Merlin busily studying the sketches, book pages and paintings on the walls, when a young waitress approached them. 

“Hello dears, what can I bring you?”, she chirped, kindly smiling at them. Merlin stared at her for a second, processing the question until his brain caught up and he searched the table and walls for a menu instead. He couldn’t find anything.

“Um...coffee?”, he asked awkwardly, looking between Arthur and the waitress for help with this. The lady chuckled and flipped a page on her notepad.

“Of course! Anything specific? On our autumn menu we have a few specials, including our own take on a pumpkin spice latte and-”

“Oh that sounds wonderful”, Merlin interrupted quickly, “I’ll take that please.”   
Relieved to have passed the attention to Arthur, he sank back into the cosy armchair and waited for him to finish his order.

“The chili hot chocolate please, and two scones”, Arthur beamed at the waitress. She wrote it down quickly and then left towards the kitchen. The second she was gone, Arthur focused back on him, a soft little smile on his lips.   
“I talked a lot about myself earlier, it’s your turn”, he said, “so how was  _ your  _ day? Is anything specific on your mind?”

“I’m a bit enchanted at the moment”, Merlin confessed and let his gaze wander around the café as if to prove it, “this is wonderful. Thank you for showing this to me.”

Arthur was quiet, and when Merlin looked back at him he found him waiting for an answer.

“Ah, right. My day was fine, I stopped by the office in the morning for an appointment and then rushed over to the campus for my colloquium. I was pretty distracted though, I think Lancelot hates me now”, he worried. 

“Lancelot?”, Arthur interrupted and quirked a brow. 

“His nickname.”

“I see. What distracted you so much?”

Merlin blushed a little and clasped his hands together in his lap.

“You. Our date. I was worried you’d change your mind.”

Arthur looked almost offended as he furrowed his brows and tilted his head in response.    
“Why would I change my mind?”

“Because I’m clumsy and average and you’re so…”, Merlin explained waving a hand in Arthur’s general direction. The crease in his date’s forehead deepened even more, and for a second he feared he’d ruined something, made him angry perhaps. But then Arthur shook his head, leaned forward and fixed his eyes on Merlin’s.

“Please don’t ever talk yourself down like that. You’re interesting, and anything but average”, he said warmly but with an intensity that allowed no backtalk. Merlin’s cheeks burned even hotter and he had to escape Arthur’s strong gaze.  He’d met this man  _ twice  _ and he was already so affected by how genuinely honest and sweet he was. 

“What?”, Arthur asked quietly when Merlin kept his head down and bit his lip. 

“Nothing, I...you’re so kind, that’s all. I don’t think I’ve met someone like you before”, Merlin answered eventually, very aware of how soppy it sounded yet unable to articulate it differently.  
But Arthur just smiled, warm and bright, and shrugged.

“That’s how my mother raised me. And I believe treating people like you want to be treated is essential. And you never know what’s going on in people’s lives, maybe you’re the only person who’s been nice to them that week. Isn’t that worth it?”

He looked at Merlin with his big blue eyes, serious and honest, and Merlin couldn’t help the dreamy sigh he exhaled as he looked back. How was he real? Was this some kind of prank, would someone jump out with a camera any second? Or did Arthur have a big bad secret to even out all the good in him?   
Or was Merlin just really lucky to have been given this chance?

The waitress interrupted them when she brought their order. Merlin suppressed a moan when the smell of his latte hit him, and the scones looked absolutely delicious as well.

“How did you find this place?”, he asked amazed when she was gone again. Arthur just shrugged and grabbed his steaming mug to take a sip.

“I like to escape all the buzz now and then, and to find unique little places”, he replied and tried his chocolate, but put it back down immediately with a little grimace. Merlin watched him enchantedly as he licked his upper lip clean of the adorable cocoa mustache.

“It’s hot.”

“You don’t say”, Merlin agreed a tad too enthralled, and Arthur’s cheeky grin promised that Merlin’s cheeks wouldn’t have a chance to cool down today. To distract both himself and Arthur from the topic, he made an attempt to return to their conversation.

“So that’s how you spend your free time? Searching for hiding spots in London and drinking hot chocolate?”

“Occasionally, yes. Especially when the world feels too loud and too close it helps to escape”, Arthur answered so honestly it left Merlin speechless for a moment. He didn’t expect him to be so open immediately, but maybe it had to do with Merlin’s job, maybe he just made people spill their guts. Or maybe Arthur just  _ wanted  _ to be honest.

“I can’t have coffee for the same reason. It sends my anxiety through the roof, my sister had to guide me through several panic attacks before I decided to quit it for good.”

Merlin watched him try another sip of hot chocolate as he thought about a suitable reply to that. Arthur just waited patiently, his body language completely calm and safe as he went for his scone.

“Well...I’m sorry you had to go through that, I didn’t know you struggled with that. Obviously, how would I know? But it’s a healthy decision to quit coffee anyway, so you’ve got that going for you”, he tried weakly and sipped his coffee to get out of talking.

“You didn’t see the prescription I got on Wednesday?”, Arthur asked curiously, to which Merlin shook his head.

“You’re not my patient, that’s none of my business.”

“I guess that’s true.” He took another bite of his scone, a bit of clotted cream stuck to his lip.    
Merlin had to stop himself from reaching out to wipe it away, and he found himself staring once more.

“What about you Merlin, what do you do in your freetime?”

"Me? Let's see", he replied and bit his lip as he thought about it. "I love to spend time with my friends, sometimes we cook and watch movies, or we see my friend Gwaine's games. I also love reading, going on walks, and finding new libraries and museums I don't know yet."   
  
Something in that reply made Arthur smile again; it felt like a praise to Merlin. 

"How convenient."

Merlin quirked his brow and tilted his head in question, to which Arthur's smile only widened. 

"Remember how my family owns a museum?", he asked, and Merlin remembered - how silly of him. He blushed once more and reached up to scratch his nose.

Arthur grabbed his mug again and took a long sip of hot chocolate and Merlin watched him lick his lips clean again before he asked: 

"Do you want to go sometime?" 

"To your museum?", Merlin replied and when Arthur nodded he added: "I'd love to! I've never been, actually." 

Arthur smiled satisfied and leaned back comfortably in his armchair, holding his mug up with one hand while grabbing his phone with the other one. He tapped around on it for a few seconds before he faced Merlin again. 

"How does next Wednesday sound?" 


	4. Camelot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur takes Merlin on a tour through Camelot and shows him a beautiful surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!  
> I hope everyone who celebrates it had a nice St. Nikolaus' day!  
> We've reached the fourth already, the first week of December is passed and the holidays are coming closer.
> 
> Today's prompt is "Are you blushing? Not, it's just cold."  
> Enjoy and tell me what you think :)

October

Wednesday

Merlin was delighted when he saw Arthur in front of the huge portal entrance of the Camelot museum. Merlin’s footsteps on the plaster made Arthur turn his head and notice him when he had almost reached the stairs leading up to the ornamented wooden portal.

"Hi!", he beamed and jogged down the broad set of stairs towards Merlin. He felt reminded of a fairy tale movie, with prince charming walking out of the palace to meet his…uh, date. Arthur reached out and pulled him into a short hug, and his warm and chocolatey scent surrounded him almost immediately. He was sure Arthur heard the little sigh he exhaled, but he didn't mention it as he pulled back. Instead he gave him an excited smile, his eyes sparkling with ideas. His hands had slid off Merlin's shoulders and we're grabbing his wrists now. 

"Are you ready for a special tour?", he asked energetically and pulled Merlin a bit closer by his wrists. Arthur was just excited, Merlin told himself, but it had a very intense effect on him, showing in his pale pink cheeks and his throbbing heart. He reminded himself that Arthur had asked a question, he should reply. 

"You're gonna give me a private tour?", he asked, and he hated how his voice was a little higher than usual. 

Arthur chuckled and shook his head, sent the golden locks that hung out from under his hat flying, and leaned in even closer. 

"I can't do that, but I'll tell you bits and pieces about everything that the other visitors will never know", he murmured conspiratorially, and Merlin was very glad that his peacoat hid his shiver. Arthur stared down at him, and Merlin stared up into those blue eyes under those golden locks, illuminated by the street lights, they were so close now… 

"Why are you blushing?", Arthur asked quietly, with a curious expression, and just then it hit Merlin: Arthur didn't know what effect he had on people. This absolute himbo thought he could just go about his day, holding people's wrists and whispering into their ears without consequences.   
However, he had to cover up his obvious attraction for now. 

"I'm not blushing", he lied, "I'm just cold! Can we get inside, maybe?" 

The cold evening air was indeed biting his skin, and he was glad when Arthur released him and walked up the stairs next to him into the impressive building.   
They found themselves in a large entrance hall with a ticket booth, stands with pamphlets and some plates showing awards the museum had won. The ceiling was tall and detailed with stucco, the walls were a warm greige colour and all in all it seemed very fancy and sophisticated.   
Merlin was  _ intrigued _ .  He felt Arthur's hand on his coat again, and this time he shrugged it off without thinking. He put his hat in the held out hand and waited until Arthur had given their jackets to one of the ladies working the cloakroom and returned.  Both of them had dressed for the occasion, and Merlin couldn't help marvel at the beauty of Arthur in his black slacks and burgundy jumper with the white collar of his button-down sticking out. He looked like a private school student or a model for private school uniforms. He complimented Merlin's look: he'd gone for black jeans and a navy blazer he hadn't worn in ages. The thin grey scarf was just an added extra. 

"You look absolutely gorgeous", Arthur observed and let his eyes trace Merlin's figure shamelessly. He didn't mind too much. 

"You're not so bad yourself", he replied, the understatement of the year, but Arthur grinned and stepped up to him. 

"I'm flattered. Are you ready to go in?" 

"What about our tickets?" 

Arthur just rolled his eyes, put his hand on Merlin's lower back and gently guided him towards the door that led into the actual museum. The ticket inspector let them through with a conspiratorial wink to Arthur, and Merlin couldn't hide the little grin that pulled in the corners of his mouth. He was excited for this.   
They strolled through the first hall casually, stopping at every sign so Merlin could read it. This area included a basic introduction into the topics of this exhibition, mainly local history. Merlin vaguely knew a few stories, they had gone over it in school and he had learned a few things beyond, but his interest had mostly been with old traditions and his namesake wizard.   
When he'd soaked up every piece of information in the first room, they followed a short corridor to the next one. Since the Pendragons had wanted to start with the first people to inhabit what was Britain today, they began with the stone age. Merlin leaned over the thick glass displays and studied the various artifacts and the given information for a while. 

He stood in front of a few brittle spearheads when he felt Arthur press closer to his left, his breath tickling Merlin's ear as he spoke quietly to not disturb the other visitors around them. 

"I actually got to pick those up with my father. An archeologist had found them in Cork, so we flew over to make sure they were transported safely. You wouldn't believe the amount of protective measures those little things got." 

Merlin turned his head the tiniest bit to be able to look at Arthur without accidentally smashing their faces together. 

"That sounds exciting though. Do you often get to collect them yourself?" 

Arthur frowned and stared into the air for a second before he focused on Merlin again. 

"Not often. Now and then I get to come along, but I usually have different tasks that require me being here." 

Merlin let him lead them into the next room, leaning into the touch of Arthur's hand on his back. There was a newfound intimacy between them, a kind of electricity that sparked up when Arthur touched him and walked as close as this. He enjoyed it, it was thrilling in the best way and he hoped that Arthur felt it too.   
They continued their journey through the different rooms, following the carpeted way past showcases, framed pictures and long explanatory texts. Arthur patiently waited by Merlin's side whenever he stopped to read or observe an exhibit, and over time they moved closer and closer, until their arms were constantly brushing and Arthur didn't need to lean in to murmur an anecdote about whatever artifact they were looking at into Merlin's ear.   
They were walking into the medieval era when Arthur took a deep breath that caught Merlin's attention. He turned to see if everything was alright, and found Arthur with an adorably nervous frown on his face. Merlin noticed how he played with his lip for a second before he looked up at Merlin doe-eyed. 

"May I- Merlin, can I hold your hand?", he asked quietly, almost pleading. Merlin's heart made a somersault and he nodded quickly, held his hand out for Arthur to grab. Arthur slid his warm hand around Merlin's and interlaced their fingers, which sent the mentioned electricity up his arm and made him all tingly and giddy.   
Arthur mirrored his goofy smile, they must have looked like teenagers in that moment, but neither of them cared. Arthur just proceeded to lead Merlin through the exhibition. 

There was a whole large section about the introduction of agriculture into early societies and how villages used to be built, how everyday tasks were distributed and what life looked like hundreds of years ago.   
Arthur told him a captivating story about how he had been to Ireland with his father as a young boy, staying with a team of archaeologists for two weeks after they had found remains of a medieval village. One of the earthen groats bowls in the display they were looking at had been found by little Arthur himself, and Merlin was delighted at the little photography next to it, showing the scene. A little blond boy proudly held the bowl into the camera with gloved hands, his father standing next to him with a hand on his shoulder. It was absolutely adorable, but Arthur got flustered and pulled him further down their path.

Eventually they stopped in a room full of art, in front of a large painting that took in the better part of the wall. It had darkened over the many decades it had seen, but Merlin could still make out the faces of the men around the table, and the intimidating man in their middle, a heavy crown resting on his head. 

"King Arthur and the knights of the roundtable", he murmured and Arthur nodded next to him.   
"I was actually named after that wizard, because my dad is a nerd." 

Arthur chuckled and turned his head to look at Merlin with an amused expression.   
"Really? Me too, my father is a history nerd as well. It's funny we met, hm?" 

"Would you believe me that I have a friend called Lance? We call him Lancelot." 

"Oh yeah? My best friends are called Leon and Percival", Arthur grinned back. 

"I raise you Gwaine and Gwen, as in Guinevere. Her brother’s name is Elyan. And I work with a Mordred, poor guy”, Merlin contered and shook his head.

“Wow, that’s rough. My sister’s name is Morgana, she loves it though. Just her preferred side of  _ extra _ ”, Arthur replied rolling his eyes. Merlin chuckled and leaned in a little to bump his shoulder against Arthur’s.

“We should all get together for dinner and criticise our parents’ name choices”, he joked and was blessed with a giggle in response.

“Maybe we should”, he agreed and squeezed Merlin’s hand a little.   
“Come on, I haven’t shown you the best part yet.”

He gently tugged Merlin with him, past the large painting and down the rest of the gallery. They didn’t stop at each of the remaining paintings, but Merlin didn’t mind. He was curious to find out what got Arthur so excited, and he relished the casualness with which Arthur led him through the halls, as if this wasn’t the first time they held hands and as if he owned the place. Well at least the latter was partly true.  
Merlin followed him through the modern part of the exhibition, showing more recent developments and which projects the museum was working on. He wasn’t as fascinated with that as with the older history, so went through rather quickly. Merlin was a bit perplexed when he found himself back in the entrance hall, and he looked over at his date with a little frown.

“I thought you wanted to show me something?”

“I do”, Arthur smiled and let go of his hand, “but you will need your coat for this. I’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere!”

He walked the first few steps backwards as if to make sure Merlin wouldn’t just run away, but then he turned and walked over to the cloakroom to retrieve their coats, while Merlin waited and wondered where the hell this would go.   
Arthur returned before he could think of an explanation, and Merlin put on his coat obediently. As soon as he was done, Arthur took his hand again and led him back through the door they had come out of only a few minutes ago. 

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?", he tried after they'd backtracked a corridor. Arthur just shook his head and pulled him towards a glass door labeled 'garden exhibit' at the end of the 'modern' hall. It led them into the museum garden, or rather a tall maze of evergreens, illuminated by a few spots in the ground. 

"Oh. That's pretty…?" 

"That's not it, come on", Arthur laughed and pulled him along, into the maze. The night sky was black as coal already, so Merlin had to focus on not tripping in the dim light. He was so focused in fact that he found himself rather surprised when he looked up to find a large deer in front of him in one corner of the maze. It was a metal construction with a net of fairy lights wrapped around it, creating a dreamy creature made of light. It was beautiful and magical, and Merlin's hand tightened around Arthur's. But Arthur pulled him along, and around the next corner there was a little rabbit, and around the next one a wolf. 

"That's such a brilliant idea", Merlin murmured in awe, but he fell silent when they rounded the last corner.   
The heart of the maze was dominated by a large tree, stripped of its leaves and instead wrapped in strings of fairy lights. There was a bench underneath it, and the space around was filled with many more little light animals. There were birds high up on the branches of the tree, tiny squirrels were chasing around the stem. More deer were grazing or just watching the scene, and everywhere Merlin looked he found more animals.  While Arthur pulled him over to the glowing tree he discovered a little fox and more rabbits in the hedges, and when they finally stopped he found himself surrounded by branches with fairy lights. 

"Oh", he breathed, "this is so beautiful. It's magical."

Arthur nodded next to him, and Merlin couldn't help but stare a bit. He was perfect in the soft lighting, dreamy and somewhat unreal. 

"It was an art project", he murmured, now looking back at him with bright blue eyes. They were really close now. If Merlin wanted to he could easily wrap his arms around Arthur's waist or neck and enjoy the scenery like that. The thought made his heart beat faster and his breath picked up in speed.  They were tensioned with anticipation, each waiting for the other to make a move. It was silent, the cold night swallowed any sound that dared disturb them, but even a horde of wildebeests couldn't have pulled them out of their focus.   
Arthur came close, and closer, and closer, until Merlin could see the lights reflect in his blue eyes. 

"Can I kiss you, Merlin?", he rasped, and Merlin nodded quickly as if Arthur would change his mind any second. Soft hands found his cheeks, a warm contrast to his cool skin, and then Arthur closed the gap and kissed him.  His lips felt hot in the November air, a source of warmth that Merlin chased. He folded his hands on Arthur's chest and leaned in a little more, tilted his head just the right way to make the kiss more comfortable.  Arthur's thumbs rubbed a soft line up and down his jawline for a few wonderful seconds before he pulled away and smiled at him. Merlin's heart jumped at the fondness in his eyes, it filled him with warmth and butterflies. 

Ten minutes later they were slowly walking down the pavement towards Merlin's flat. The museum was close enough for him to walk, but Arthur had insisted on taking him home either way. Their hands were entwined again, and Merlin was giddy with happiness and hormones. Strolling through the city at 10pm holding Arthur's hand felt just right, and judging by Arthur's energized talking he was just as enticed. 

They reached the building way too fast for Merlin's taste. 

"You could come up for a while if you wanted to", he offered, but Arthur shook his head with a sad smile. 

"I need to be in the office really early tomorrow, I'm sorry. Next time." 

"Okay. When's next time?", Merlin asked impatiently, drawing a little laugh from his date. 

"Let's talk about it another day, ok? I think we both have schedules to check." 

Merlin couldn't stop the little sigh he let out, but it seemed to amuse Arthur. He liked him so much already, how did he get there? This was going so much faster than usually. 

"Can I have a goodnight kiss before you need to go?", he asked quietly. Instead of an answer Arthur stepped closer, cupped his face again and kissed him, just as soft and chaste as in the museum's garden earlier. 

"Goodnight Merlin", he whispered, lingering a second longer before he turned and walked down the pavement, turning back once to smile at him. 

With a long sigh that fell somewhere between contentment and longing Merlin turned to the door to get up into his flat. 


	5. Sugar Rush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur invites Merlin to bake Christmas cookies with him...in the first week of November.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> How are you? Thank you so much for everyone who's left kudos and comments so far!  
> Please don't be mad at Arthur for starting this early, he just loves Christmas and wants to enjoy it for as long as possible. Do you guys also start after Halloween or do you wait until December? And do some of you celebrate other holidays instead of Christmas? :)
> 
> Before we start, todays promtps are "baking cookies" and "candy cane kisses" !  
> Enjoy and tell me what you think!

_November_

_Saturday_

Merlin was curled up in the corner of the booth they shared. His feet were up on the bench, chin resting on his knees as he followed the conversation of his friends over his coffee. Gwaine was draped next to him, looking as comfortable as if he owned the place, deep in conversation with Gwen and Lancelot across the table. They were discussing a recent rugby game that Merlin hadn't seen, but he didn't mind, he was happy just being around his friends. And after the last couple of days he really enjoyed every moment he got without having to think about neurons or psychosis or different approaches to helping a patient heal. He loved his job and really wanted to have that degree, but the thesis took a lot of time and energy. 

"- look at him, he needs a break Lancelot. And it's Saturday, why don't you relax for once and have a nice weekend with your girlfriend?", Gwaine suggested and rolled his eyes while Merlin realised that he must have zoned out.   
"Actually that goes for you too", Gwaine added and turned his head in Merlin's direction.   
"Are you seeing anyone?" 

Merlin raised his brows and simultaneously tried to figure out when the conversation had gone from rugby to dating, and how the hell he was supposed to tell them that he was dating someone without starting a riot. Because although Merlin didn't care about the press and celebrities, Gwaine and Gwen did, and they'd start a riot if he told them, and he'd have to introduce them, but he didn't even know how this relationship would develop - 

"Didn't you have a date last week?", Lancelot remembered , "you couldn't focus at all in our colloquium. Are you still seeing that guy?" 

Gwaine's eyes widened in an indignant expression, and Merlin ducked his head in preparation of what was coming. 

"You're dating someone and _Lancelot_ knew before me?", his best friend complained loudly, "Who is he? What does he do, how long have you been seeing him? I need details!" 

"Okay okay, shut up", Merlin hissed, "people are looking!" 

Indeed a few heads had turned towards their booth and Merlin put on an apologetic smile in response to the unwanted attention. 

"The guy I ran into at the - Gwaine I _swear_ to God", he interrupted himself when his friend began to squeal. Following Merlin's warning he pretended to close a zipper over his mouth, so Merlin continued.

"He walked into the office a few days later and asked me out. We've been out twice, he's very sweet", Merlin concluded. His friends stared at him, waiting, and when nothing else was said they exchanged a glance. 

"But are there sparks?", Gwen began, followed by a bunch of questions by the boys. 

"What's his last name?" 

"Did you kiss him?" 

"What does he look like?" 

"What's his job? That's important, Merlin!" 

"When will you see him again?" 

Merlin put his mug on the table and crossed his arms in front of his chest to shut himself off from the invading questions. That's exactly why he hadn't told them earlier. He needed to figure out things with Arthur before he could tell them. 

"Come on, I'll tell you when it gets serious. Just let me figure it all out first, okay?", he asked, and immediately they stopped their teasing and chattering. They were a little much at times, but ultimately great pals who knew when it was enough. Gwen's face softened and she reached out to pet his knee as his legs were still up on the seat.

"Of course, we're just excited for you. Take your time." 

"But if you could show-" 

Gwen's warning glare made Gwaine fall silent, and he raised his hands in Merlin's direction. 

"Fine, sorry pal. I'll shut up. But don't plan anything for Thanksgiving. That's sacred." 

Merlin shook his head with a chuckle. None of them were American, but one year Gwaine had suggested a _Friendsgiving_ and somehow it had stuck. Some years that had been the only time they'd all been together, before Gwaine had picked up his studies again and stopped traveling to sports competitions.   
His phone buzzed and distracted him from his thoughts. He opened it and was delighted to find a text from Arthur, asking if he was up for another date. 

* * *

The door buzzed open just a second after Merlin had rang the doorbell. He entered the rather luxurious entrance hall and went straight for the elevator, he wouldn't jog up twelve floors on the stairs, he valued his lungs. 

Up on the twelfth floor it took him a few seconds to find the right apartment, but once he did and knocked the door swung open before he could lower his hand again. Arthur beamed at him, and Merlin couldn't help but smile back at the sheer happiness radiating from him. 

"Come on in", he said warmly and stepped aside to let Merlin into the flat. He followed the invitation and took off his boots before he turned to take in the sight in front of him. Arthur looked handsome as usual with his soft knit sweater and his fluffy blond mane. The feeling seemed to be mutual, for Arthur gave him a quick scan and then smiled even wider. 

"You look gorgeous", he smiled and moved to take Merlin's coat from him, stepping intriguingly close to him. Merlin's eyes flicked down to his lips, remembering the last time they'd seen each other. Was it still okay to kiss him or would they need some time to get there again? He was a bit rusty, it’d been a while since he properly dated someone.

Luckily Arthur seemed to have read his mind, because a heartbeat later he asked:

"Is it still okay to kiss you?" 

Merlin's heart jumped excitedly and instead of a reply he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Arthur's lips, keeping it light and short for now. 

"What's the plan?", he hummed as soon as there was a bit more space in between them again. Arthur lingered a little before he gave a happy little sigh and reached for Merlin's hand, then proceeded to pull him through the living room into the kitchen. Merlin got a glance at the large, comfy looking sofa by a fireplace, lots of bookshelves and a few floor-to-ceiling windows granting a beautiful view over Knightsbridge before he was pulled through into the kitchen.

"I really hope you're not strict with everything regarding Christmas, because I want to make cookies with you", he confessed with a sheepish smile. Merlin quirked a brow and grinned, he didn’t actually mind it, but it was kind of funny.

“You are aware that Halloween was last week, right? It’s still a month until December”, he teased, but had to giggle when Arthur pulled a pouty face in response.

“I know”, he explained and raised the hand that wasn’t locked with Merlin’s, “but I love Christmas so much, it’s never too early to get into the mood. And it’s just cookies, you don’t even need a holiday to make those.”

Clearly deciding he had won this short discussion, Arthur turned and pulled around the island counter to the ones on the wall, on which Merlin saw three dough-rolls wrapped in cling film with a pile of cookie cutters next to them. A little more to the left was a bag of dough, a rolling pin and little bottles of food colouring. 

“Oh you’re really into the cookie game, huh”, Merlin pointed out, and Arthur stilled in whatever he had done by the stove and turned his head to look at him with an expression like a child who’s lost their favourite toy. Or a sad puppy. Or maybe a scared fawn.  
Merlin raised his hands defensively and shook his head, “oh no, I’m impressed. I’m ready, let’s do this.”

They decided to start with the chocolate dough, and Merlin pretended to pick out the perfect cookie cutters when he was really watching how Arthur rolled up his sleeves and then rolled out the cookie dough in four strong pushes of the rolling pin.  
He got caught, and Arthur’s amused grin made Merlin giggle lightheartedly. 

“Are you ready or would you like to watch me make the whole batch alone?”, Arthur teased with a cocky grin once the dough was nice and flat.

“Don’t let it get to your head”, Merlin contered grinning. He looked back down at the stack of cookie cutters, all christmas themed. There were way too many, so he just stuck his hand in and chose blindly. He retrieved a stocking and a reindeer head, holding them up for Arthur to see.

“Is chocolate Rudy fine with you?”, he asked, shuffling closer to Arthur and the dough to get to work. The other just nodded, so Merlin pressed the little plastic reindeer into the soft dough, cutting the first cookie of the season. He carefully scooped it up and placed it on the prepared oven tray, then went back to repeat the action.   
He was at his third cookie when he noticed Arthur moving behind him impatiently, grabbing the little stocking Merlin had chosen.

“We have three doughs to go through, and we wanna get them done today”, he said energetically, but with no edge to his voice. He was probably just excited. His arms wrapped around Merlin as he pushed the cutter into the dough, quickly moving through the whole thing and leaving the little cookies behind. He moved away to scoop them onto the tray while Merlin collected the leftover dough into a ball to start over. Apparently he wasn’t fast enough, for Arthur’s arms slid around him again and his hands rested on Merlin’s, guiding him to knead the dough with stronger, faster motions. 

“I feel like _Demi Moore_ in Ghost”, Merlin giggled, and Arthur’s chuckle vibrated through his chest behind his head.

“I’m very alive, and I’d like to keep it that way”, he hummed as he grabbed the rolling pin and quickly flattened the rest of the chocolate dough, trapping Merlin between his arms.

“Hm...you’re also much more handsome than Patrick Swayze.”  
  
Arthur finished his job and put the pin away, instead wrapped his arms around Merlin’s torso and pulled him back against his own chest, kissing his cheek with a smile.   
“You think?”

“I _know_ ”, Merlin chuckled, “have you seen yourself? You always look ready for a photoshoot, and somehow on top of that you’re just the sweetest guy, I mean- _uff_ !”   
He was rudely interrupted by Arthur grabbing his waist and spinning him around in a swift motion, as if he wasn’t a full grown man, and then proceeded to lean in for a wild kiss. Merlin closed his eyes reflexively when their lips met, and chuckled when he felt Arthur smiling. It felt so nice and easy, he didn’t worry about pacing or next dates or whatever he’d usually worry about with dates, he just enjoyed the feeling and reached up to slide his arms around Arthur’s neck, tilting his head just the right angle to slide his tongue over Arthur’s bottom lip, because why the hell not? His lips parted just enough for Merlin to lick into his mouth and taste him, and Arthur followed his example.   
They stood there for a while, holding and kissing each other. Merlin raked his fingers through the back of Arthur’s head, and Arthur rubbed slow circles between Merlin’s shoulder blades.

But humans need air to live, and soon enough they took a break to breathe. Merlin adored the sight of Arthur’s red lips, shimmering in the kitchen light as he sucked in breath after breath, beaming at Merlin who was still wrapped in his arms.

“We’re never gonna finish those cookies if we don’t hurry”, Merlin grinned when Arthur leaned in again, and it earned him a playful punch to the chest.

“If you’d be a better kneader, we wouldn’t have gotten there”, Arthur teased and gently shoved Merlin aside in order to reach the dough and cut out more cookies.

They worked through the rest of the dough more effectively and got the first two trays into the oven, then moved on to the second dough. Arthur spent five minutes trying to convince Merlin to put on Christmas music, but Merlin insisted that there was a line that shouldn’t be crossed, and in his opinion Christmas songs were only acceptable to listen to in December. They settled on an Oldies playlist instead and hummed along as they prepared the second batch of rum-vanilla Christmas trees.  
When Merlin prepared the cinnamon dough for cutting, Arthur excused himself and moved over to the stove to mix something in a pot that was already there. Merlin didn’t mind, he hummed along to the Beatles and cut out beautiful little stars. The smell of cocoa filled the room, but he focused on his hands, assuming he’d find out soon enough where it came from.  
He was just finishing putting the stars on the tray when Arthur appeared next to him again holding two large mugs of what smelled like hot cocoa, but was hidden under a layer of whipped cream and melting marshmallows. A red and white candy cane stuck out of each one.

“Let’s get those into the oven and have a break”, Arthur smiled and handed him one of the mugs carefully. He set his own on the counter, grabbed oven mitts and exchanged the first batch for the latest, then closed the oven and took his cocoa.  
Merlin was already sipping it, raising his eyebrows when the sweet flavour spread on his tongue.

"If all your cooking is this good, I'm coming over for dinner some time", he said impressed and took another sip. Arthur leaned against the counter, nibbling on his candy cane with a little smile that widened at Merlin’s words.

“Fantastic”, he agreed, pushed himself off the counter and walked the short distance to him, “I’m free on Tuesday. Do you want anything in particular?”

Merlin really wanted to roll his eyes, but the sparkle in Arthur’s had him grinning instead; how was he so smooth, dammit?

“I need to be careful with my words around you, don’t I? But yes, Tuesday's good, I’m available from five o’clock.”

“Can you be here at five thirty?”, Arthur asked with pleading eyes and a cheeky smile, to which Merlin shook his head and giggled, playfully pushing his chest.

“Stop trying to woo me, I’m -”

“Why, isn’t it working? Do I need to find you a shiny rock or perform a dance like a bird?”, Arthur interrupted amused, candy cane between his teeth.

“I was about to say I’m all yours, but I _do_ like crystals”, Merlin giggled back, the image of Arthur performing a mating dance was so weird and bizarre that it was funny again.

“Is that so?”, he replied moving closer until Merlin felt his breath on his face. He slowly pulled the candy cane out between his lips, licking them clean of the sticky sugar without breaking eye contact.

“Those cookies need to be decorated”, he murmured with a lopsided grin and was about to move away again. He thought he was so smart, but Merlin wasn’t up for teasing, and he had to restore Arthur’s impression of him, because he wasn’t always the clumsy mess he’d been so far.

“Shut up and stop fuckin’ with me”, he replied with a grin, pulled him back with a strong tug on his arm and pulled him into a minty-chocolatey kiss. Arthur was perplexed for a second before he wrapped an arm around Merlin’s waist again, kissing back properly. Merlin liked how this was becoming a thing, he could just kiss him now, and he planned to do it a lot. He relished the taste of cocoa and mint and _Arthur_ and could have gone on for ages, just staying in the moment.   
But Arthur pulled away again with a little smile, and Merlin prepared for another tease, because he absolutely wouldn’t -

“I’d love to keep kissing you, I really do, but the cookies are gonna burn”, Arthur apologised with a kiss to his cheek, and Merlin’s brain was too fuzzy to come up with a good reply, so he just nodded and followed him back to the oven. They could continue this later.


	6. Candlelight Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A storm is coming and Merlin already sees his date go down the drain, but Arthur won't let that happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments, I'm so happy you like the story!  
> We're already in the double digits, how did eleven days pass so quickly? I hope you're all having a lovely December so far.  
> In this chapter we discuss Camelot and it's employees, please be lenient with me as I am not an expert on company structure and policies, it's all just fiction :D
> 
> Today's prompts are "Caught in a storm" and "Cuddles in a power outage".
> 
> Enjoy!

_November_

_Tuesday_

Sunday and Monday passed slowly, two days felt like weeks. Even though Merlin had more than enough work to pass his time, he found himself checking the clock every other minute, only to find that barely any time had passed.

He’d gotten home late after their last date, happy and tired and with flour on his pants. They had managed to decorate six trays of cookies rather professionally, so detailed that Merlin had trouble believing he’d played a part in their creation. They had tried a bunch of them, and now he was pretty sure he couldn’t touch anything sweet again until Christmas.

Tuesday morning was spent with Lancelot, laser focused on their research and trying to make something of the data they’d gathered so far, cross-referencing sources and each trying to decide which aspects would be important for their thesis, as they were in a research team together but their topics differed.

He was sitting on the couch in his flat, snuggled into a blanket with his laptop on his knees, going over the work he’d done today in case he needed to add anything. He still had an hour left until he was supposed to be at Arthur’s place, so he used it for work. Merlin’s new love life was exciting and amazing, he loved being with Arthur and couldn’t wait to see where all of it would go, _but_ it also really distracted him. He wasn’t used to sharing his life, and he’d forgotten how much time significant others require. Unfortunately he couldn’t cut his work time or his hours in uni to spend more time with him, so he tried to fit both schedules together as best as he could.  
The radio was on in the background to break the silence, he didn’t like sitting alone in a quiet flat, it made him uncomfortable. He was going over some of the data they’d gathered today, deciding how it would best be interpreted to test their hypothesis, when the news anchor caught his attention.

“- storm will be reaching London earlier than originally estimated, so make sure to take anything important inside tonight -”

A storm? Merlin turned his head to look at the radio, listening to the news anchor explaining the caliber they were expecting, based on measures in other cities the storm had passed through. They advised the people to stay home and enjoy a cup of tea as walking the streets could be dangerous in a few hours. There’d been power outages in Canterbury and Rochester, and so far the strength of the storm hadn’t subsided, so it could very likely hit London to the same extent.  
Fan-fucking-tastic. Merlin already saw his dinner date go down the drain, there was no way he’d walk home during a storm that had overturned trees in other cities, he valued his life and would like to keep it.

With a disappointed sigh he reached out for his phone, unlocked it and scrolled down the list of contacts until he found Arthur’s name, selected it and pressed the call button.

“Hi!”, Arthur greeted him cheerfully from the other end. He missed him, he really did, and the thought that he wouldn’t get to see him today hurt more than expected. The disappointment was audible in his voice when he continued.

“Hey...are you following the news?”

“Yes. What do you think?”

Merlin shrugged at nobody in particular, sank back into the sofa cushions and chewed on his lip lost in thought. He wanted to go, really, but if it was as bad as the news said he’d put himself in danger by going home at night, whether he walked or took a bus.

“I don’t know Arthur...I want to come over, but you’ve heard what happened in the other cities. It’s a tricky matter”, Merlin replied unhappily and ran his hand through his hair.   
Arthur was quiet for a few seconds, but Merlin could hear noise in the background, something hissing and clanking. Was he already cooking?

“You know, you could just stay here”, he said casually, “I’m sure it will be better in the morning, and I don’t have any appointments tomorrow.”

“Are you sure? I don’t have work tomorrow, and I suppose I could push my writing into the afternoon”, Merlin thought aloud, “but I don’t want to trouble you!”

“You’re not troubling me”, Arthur chuckled on the other end, “I’d be delighted to have you over. Just bring a toothbrush and some cosy socks and you should be fine.”

Merlin smiled into the room, nodding his head in agreement.

“Good, thanks. I’ll be over at 5.30?”

“Can’t wait.”

They said their goodbyes and hung up. Merlin checked the time, he had about forty minutes until he was expected at Arthur’s place, so he saved his work and put the laptop down to get ready.

* * *

When Merlin reached Arthur’s floor the door was already open, so he went in and hesitantly walked into the living room, looking around. He was a minute early, surely that wouldn’t be a problem?

“Arthur?”, he called into the flat, “I’m here!”

After a heartbeat of silence he heard footsteps, and on the other side of the living room Arthur came out of a room Merlin didn’t know yet, smiling as he saw him.

“Hi! Sorry, I got sauce on my jumper and had to change it”, he explained with a lopsided smile, crossing the room quickly to give Merlin a kiss.

“Let me take your coat.”

Merlin shrugged off his backpack and jacket, handing the latter to Arthur, who’s eyes were fixed on the backpack on the ground.

“That’s more than a toothbrush”, he pointed out to which Merlin rolled his eyes. Yes, obviously it was, he wasn’t a caveman, his silky smooth skin and luscious hair didn't come from nothing, he needed a bit more than water and a toothbrush to start and finish his days. He didn’t voice any of that, just raised his brows a little.

“I feel like my mum dropped me off for a sleepover”, he grinned and took a few steps toward the kitchen while Arthur hung up his jacket. He’d caught a whiff of a rather delicious smell, and he wanted to find out what it was that gave it off, but he didn’t get very far before a hand wrapped around his wrist and held him back. Confused he turned around and raised his brows at Arthur, who just shook his head.

“Not yet, you’ll find out soon enough!”

“Come on, it smells so nice!”, he protested and tried to free himself, but Arthur’s grip was tight on him. He gave up and dropped his hand, tilting his head in question.

“Fine, _your majesty_ , what do we do until dinner?”

“Watch your tone or you’ll only get crumbs”, Arthur replied grinning, pulling Merlin by his wrist when he walked over to the sofa on the other side of the living room. When Merlin dropped into the soft cushions he wondered if he was ever going to be able to get up again, they were incredibly comfortable, it felt like sitting on a cloud. While Arthur shifted around next to him, trying to find the perfect spot like a cat would do, Merlin pulled his legs up and got even more comfortable.

“Good luck getting me off this thing”, he grinned, but he got distracted by the tray of tea and cookies on the coffee table in front of them, when had that gotten there? Arthur hadn’t left his side since he’d entered the flat, so it must have been prepared already.

Arthur must have followed his line of sight, since he leaned forward to reach for the neatly arranged mugs to pour them some tea.

“Do you always have tea and biscuits prepared?”

“When I have important guests I do”, Arthur replied, handing Merlin a mug of tea and offering him the plate of their Christmas cookies. 

“Ah, I think I’ve had enough of those for the season.” Merlin took a sip of the offered black tea and snuggled back into the sofa cushion, chuckling at Arthur’s indignant expression.

“What? They’re really sweet, I can’t have too much of that. And neither do you”, Merlin teased and reached out to poke Arthur’s stomach as if to prove his point, but was a bit surprised when he met hard muscle. He knew he was fit, but _that_ was pushing it a bit. Maybe he didn’t have to watch his cookie consumption afterall.  
Merlin sulkily retrieved his hand and focused back on his tea, trying to ignore Arthur’s chuckle. 

Eventually Arthur asked him about his day, and Merlin told him about the research they had finished today and how he planned to interpret the data as soon as he could, because his supervisor wanted proof of his progress next week.They continued to talk about the methodology they’d used, or rather Arthur kept asking questions which led Merlin to lengthy, detailed replies, leading to more questions and so on.  
By the time Merlin had told Arthur almost everything about his work it was already dark outside, and the wind howling through the street indicated that the storm had reached London.  
They took a break from their conversation to get the food - rosemary salmon and roasted veggies with a glass of white wine - and moved over to the dining table before they continued. 

Merlin returned the initial question, and Arthur told him he’d spent the majority of the day cleaning and cooking, so everything would be neat and prepared when Merlin came over. Merlin wondered what kind of job allowed him to just take a day off like that, and that led to a lengthy description of what he actually _did_ to earn his money.

Merlin had already gathered that Camelot wasn’t just a museum, it was a company with a complex hierarchy and things like investors, stockholders and a board of directors. Arthur held a position in the latter, according to him he was one of three advisors who reviewed decisions and numbers and made sure everything was going well, otherwise they’d inform the other board members and the director, Uther Pendragon. Arthur’s sister Morgana was the CEO, and Merlin couldn’t help but think that their positions had something to do with their family relations, they were both younger than thirty afterall and he’d never seen anyone climb the career ladder that quickly.

They were just done with dinner and slowly moving on to more casual conversation topics when the lights in the room flickered for a few seconds and then went out. Arthur excused himself to go check the fuse box in the corridor while Merlin went over to the large windows. He stared at the city, usually bright at all times, but there was no light tonight, not even stars. Everything was dark now, even the street lights were off.  
When Arthur returned he already knew what he would say: this wasn’t just an issue regarding the flat or the house, it was a city-wide power outage. They could do nothing but get comfortable and wait until the lights turned on again, which could take all night for all they knew.  
So they gathered a bunch of candles and put them on the coffee table, brought the thermos with the remaining tea and then cuddled up on the sofa with a few blankets since the heat would be affected by the power cut too. Merlin was more than happy to snuggle into Arthur’s chest, spooning up the outstanding mousse au chocolat Arthur had made for dessert, and listening to stories from his childhood. It was nice and cosy, just the perfect way to spend a stormy night like this.

Another few hours later the cold had seeped through the walls enough to make them a bit uncomfortable, so they got some more wine and tea and turned themselves into a double blanket burrito, cuddling even closer. Merlin shared some stories of his own, and they exchanged little anecdotes, feeling closer to each other with each bit of information. Eventually storytelling was interrupted by lazy kisses, and chuckles, and more kisses, and Merlin contentedly thought that he had made the right decision by staying over. 


	7. Spotlights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin's friends want to meet Arthur, so he googles him to find out just how famous he actually is. The results scare him a little bit and he ends up having a serious talk with Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!  
> Happy third advent to all of you, I hope you had a nice week!  
> I know I promised only fluff and giggles, but a tiny bit of angst snuck in today. I promise the next one will be much fluffier again, don't you worry.  
> For that reason there are no prompts today, we're just exploring Arthur's fame a bit.  
> Still, I hope you enjoy it!

__

_November_

_Wednesday_

The sun was shining through the bedroom window when Merlin woke up, giving the room a crisp glow, like fresh untouched snow. It was quiet, only when he focused really hard he could hear the bustle outside on the street. There was another little sound coming from behind him, where Arthur lay nestled against him like a puzzle piece, face buried in Merlin’s hair. He was softly snoring, an adorable little sound that accompanied every other breath.  
Merlin chuckled quietly and shuffled a little further back, until his back was flush against the other body. He pulled the heavy duvet up to his nose, careful not to stir too much so he wouldn’t wake Arthur, but the arm that was still wrapped around him, heavily resting on his ribs, only tightened as if to make sure he couldn’t just get out of bed.   
Not that he planned to leave. It was wonderfully warm, quite the contrast to the cool room around them, and he didn’t mind the cuddles. He hadn’t expected Arthur to be much of a cuddler, so it was a rather pleasant surprise, and since none of them had urgent plans he was totally fine with staying in bed for a while longer.  
He was actually quite groggy, perhaps a mix of all the studying and work he’d done in the last two days in an attempt to catch up with everything. The white wine might have played a part in it, and all of the wonderful activities that had followed the wine had surely influenced his current limp state as well. Not that he was complaining, quite the contrary: he was on cloud nine and wouldn’t come down anytime soon.

Arthur stirred behind him, stretched his legs out slowly and yawned, then pressed a kiss to the back of Merlin’s neck.

“Mornin’ “, he murmured in an adorably raspy voice, still heavy with sleep.

“Good morning”, Merlin hummed in reply, sighing happily when he was drawn even closer against Arthur’s wonderfully warm body, followed by more kisses to his neck and shoulder. He could definitely get used to this, he thought, waking up next to Arthur and being covered in kisses.

“When’s the next storm?”

Arthur’s laughter rumbled through his chest, vibrating through Merlin’s back where he was pressed against him. The arm around him reached up to gently hold his chin and turn his head back to meet Arthur’s amused face, and Merlin couldn’t help but adore the way his hair was tousled like a haystack.

“You’re very welcome to come over again”, he smiled and ran his thumb along Merlin’s jaw softly. Merlin just nodded, a big smile on his face, and snuggled his cheek into the palm of Arthur’s warm hand contentedly.

* * *

The following two weeks were wonderful.

Merlin got a lot of work done and on top of that got to see Arthur almost everyday, and whenever he couldn’t they talked on the phone, telling each other about their days. It was fantastic, and everyone could tell from his demeanor that he was more than happy. Mordred greeted him with a wide grin when he came to work one morning, five minutes late and with kiss-swollen lips, and he and his friends kept asking and poking and nettling him about who the lucky boy was.

Thanksgiving was coming up and Gwaine was busy organizing everything, he was the one most passionate about their Friendsgiving tradition and thus had taken the reins. Nobody minded, they were all relieved to getonly one task each they could focus on.   
Gwen and Lancelot wanted to prepare the main dish, Elyan was tasked with the desserts and Merlin was responsible for snacks and drinks, something he was able to handle. But Gwaine kept nudging him to bring his date along, and since multiple tries to get him off of the topic hadn’t gone anywhere he had resigned and agreed to at least ask him.

But before he called Arthur, he had made the utterly foolish decision to google him.

And now he was dizzy.

He’d known from both Mordred and Arthur himself that he seemed to be well known, but he hadn’t known _how_ well. Merlin had expected a few articles relating to his work for the company, a few pictures maybe, but there was _tons_ of stuff.

As he’d expected there were articles about his work, but instead of short reports he found lengthy interviews where Arthur very eloquently and sharp-wittedly answered questions and told little anecdotes. Some of them had been filmed too, and watching him was mesmerizing. He just had a way of conversing with the interviewer and the camera, as if he’d never done anything else in his life. There were pictures of him with other celebrities, ones even Merlin knew, and a good bunch of magazine covers and photoshoots that left him speechless.  
According to the websites Merlin found he often attended public events or charity galas, either with his family and friends or a girl on his arm.   
The latter was a thorn in his side, why were only girls in the pictures? And why so many different ones? He couldn’t help but worry what this would mean for their relationship, what he had to expect. At the same time he didn’t want to hear it, scared he’d get a response he couldn’t live with, that he would be hurt. But hiding wouldn’t help him either, and he had to talk to Arthur anyway about Thanksgiving, and if he wouldn’t say anything Arthur would call him in the evening as had become a habit in the last two weeks.  
So he bit the bullet and asked whether he could come over ‘to talk’. Arthur’s reply was worried, but he agreed and urged Merlin to come as soon as he’d like to discuss whatever was heavy on his heart.

  
  


Two hours later, at six pm he was buzzed into the building and took the elevator up to Arthur’s apartment, a bundle of bare nerves and scared of what the evening would bring.

Arthur met him with a worried expression, letting him in and offering him a seat on the couch, all the while looking like he was about to receive the worst news of his life. Merlin felt bad for worrying him like that, but he wasn’t sure how it all would turn out either, so he wasn’t in the right place to comfort him. They sat in silence for a few seconds as Merlin collected his thoughts, then eventually it became uncomfortable, so he began.

“I...I had a reason to google you, and…”

He stopped mid-sentence, unsure how to voice his questions, what he wanted to know from Arthur. The blond one clenched his jaw and frowned, but kept his eyes on Merlin attentively. He was quiet though, waiting for him to go on, so Merlin had no choice but to speak again.

“You didn’t tell me _how_ famous you were, Arthur”, he complained, tousling his hair restlessly to have something to do with his hand, “there are pictures of you on the street, just going about your day, paparazzi photos! And you seem to know all those famous people and you’re on tv and in magazines and there’s all those photoshoots-”

He took a deep breath to calm himself, hyperventilating now wouldn’t get him anywhere, he needed answers, he had to know everything was fine so he could calm himself and then curl up with Arthur.

“I’m sorry”, Arthur interrupted, and Merlin hated how serious his voice was, nothing left of his usual teasing or the fondness he spoke with around Merlin.

“I should have, I just didn’t know how important it would be, and it never really came up”, he apologized, wringing his hands in his lap nervously as he spoke.

“So if this is too much for you…”

“No! I mean, I don’t know”, Merlin hurried to say, “I just don’t know if I am comfortable with random people on the street taking pictures, because that obviously happens.”

“I see...although it’s not as much as you’d think, it happens scarcely. There’s no big fuss about me in the media unless it’s something official, like an interview or something similar. It’s not like I step out the door and am immediately surrounded by cameras”, Arthur replied quietly, still with that deep line between his brows and restless eyes that now couldn’t stay fixed on Merlin.

“Okay...that’s good, I can handle that”, Merlin nodded with rather flat excitement in his voice, he didn’t want the conversation to stay in this serious and uncomfortable tone, but unfortunately there was more on his chest and he couldn’t relax until he’d gotten it off there, received his answers whether they would be good or bad.

He took another few breaths, fiddling with his fingers while he tried to find the right words.

“There’s more, right?”Arthur murmured, and Merlin hated the resignation in his voice. He really didn’t want to hurt him, but he also didn’t want to be hurt himself, so he had to continue.

“Kind of”, he nodded, biting his lip for a second as if to keep the words in, but he couldn’t stand it for long.  
“In all of those pictures you’re either with your family or girls...which is not a problem at all, of course, you’re obviously allowed to have your past, I just…”

He sighed and looked up only to find Arthur’s eyes already fixed on him, he could almost see the questions in them.

“Why only girls? I just want to know I’m not getting the wrong impression here.”

Arthur sat up straighter with a heavy sigh, rubbing the palms of his hands against his thighs as he thought of an appropriate answer, which only worried Merlin more. If the nasty little voice in his head was right, if those ugly assumptions were true, he would be devastated.

“You’re right, I’ve never taken a guy to any event”, Arthur began slowly, “and that’s partly because I was very girl crazy when I was younger. I’ve known I like both guys and girls since I was around seventeen, but never really explored that until five, six years ago. And, um...my father encouraged me to keep it out of the press. Not that he has anything against it”, he interrupted at Merlins frown, raising his hands, “he’s really supportive, he wanted to protect me from getting hurt by strangers. But a lot has changed in the last few years, I’m 28 and I think I can handle myself”, he finished with a careful smile.

Merlin nodded slowly, this was much better than the possibility of being an experiment, a fun little fling before real life caught up again. He could handle that answer.

“And Merlin?”

He nodded again, Arthur’s now soft expression helped calm down the anxiety that had built in his chest, and when he took Merlin’s hands in his it felt like everything was good.

“I haven’t taken anyone with me in years because nobody was _important_ enough. I promise you I’m taking this - taking us seriously.”

He rubbed Merlin’s hands gently, still with that careful smile on his face.

“Do you want to know anything else? Just ask, I don’t have anything to hide from you.”

Merlin shook his head with a relieved sigh, then laced his fingers between Arthur’s and offered a smile in return.

“No, thanks. I got a bit overwhelmed, so, uh, sorry for making you worry. I think I just got scared, I like you a lot and I wanted to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Arthur hummed and pulled him into a hug, which Merlin gladly accepted and snuggled against him, tucking his head into the crook of Arthur’s neck.

“Do you want to stay here?”, Arthur asked quietly.

“Mh-mh, I’ve got to be at work at six tomorrow.”

“Oh. Another day, then. You could come over for dinner?”

“I’m pretty busy this week”, Merlin murmured into Arthur’s jumper, “but that reminds me: my friends are throwing a Thanksgiving party, I’ve been asked to bring my _mystery man_ along. Do you want to? I do have to warn you though, they might go a little crazy over you.”

“I didn’t know you celebrated Thanksgiving, do you have American friends or family?”, Arthur asked curiously, ignoring the last part of Merlin's sentence.

“Nah, my best friend just likes to eat tons of food and hang out with as many friends as possible, and he saw a wonderful opportunity for that in a Friendsgiving. It’s tradition now”, Merlin explained shortly.

“So, do you wanna come?”


	8. Thanksgiving and New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving with new and old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> I'm a bit late today, pardon me, real life kept me busy. I hope you'll enjoy the chapter nevertheless!
> 
> Today's prompts are "overeating" and "sneaky mistletoe"!

_  
_

_November_

_Thanksgiving_

  
  


They were standing in front of Gwaine's house, each holding a box full of drinks, ingredients and snacks, taking a last deep breath to prepare for the upcoming trouble. 

"Are you ready?", Merlin asked, offering Arthur a lopsided smile as he shuffled to ring the doorbell with the heavy box in his arms. 

"I'll live." 

Merlin had told his friends two days ago, and the reaction had been as anticipated: Gwaine had lost his shit, Gwen had been super excited for him and Lancelot had said that fame didn't matter as long as he was good to Merlin and made him happy. 

The door basically flew open, and Merlin was met with the face of his best friend, grinning widely and shamelessly at Arthur. 

"Fuck, you weren't lying! Nice job, Merlin!" 

"Shut up Gwaine", Merlin said embarrassed, "you could make yourself useful and take those heavy-ass boxes." 

"Ah yeah, sorry mate! I'm Gwaine, come on in and get comfortable", he replied a bit less over the top and took the box from Arthur, immediately starting a conversation with him as they went inside. 

Merlin shook his head with a little grin. 

"Great. Thanks Gwaine", he mumbled, rolling his eyes as he followed them, kicking the door shut behind him. He walked down the short corridor to the kitchen, where he could finally put the heavy box down with the rest of the food that was already there. Gwen and Lancelot had really outdone themselves, there were at least three other meals next to the obligatory turkey, not counting the sides. Merlin gave an impressed little nod as he inspected the many tupperware boxes. He _would_ feel sad for the poor main dishes, because Arthur had decided to bake another three trays of christmas cookies to bring to the party and those would definitely be devoured first, _but_ he knew his friends. They could eat a meal the size of a buffalo and still want more, so he wasn’t very concerned.

When he entered the living room he found his friends already surrounding Arthur with stars in their eyes, but at least they weren’t pelting him with questions. That probably meant that Merlin would have to endure them later, but that would be fine. He’d brought enough punch.  
None of them so much as turned to him when he entered, they were all glued to Arthur’s lips who seemed to be telling an anecdote about an event he attended. Merlin grinned and walked over to them, slapped his hand on Gwaine’s shoulder and managed to startle him with it.

“Wow, you didn’t even _notice_ me”, he fake-complained, “I’m hurt. You see a blond lad and you’re gone.”

Gwaine grinned in response and pulled him into a rib-crushing hug, patting his back with a strength only long-time athletes had.

“Aw come on, I have to get to know your boy to see if I approve!”

“As if I need your approval”, Merlin teased and tried to free himself from Gwaine’s bear hug.  
“You’re breaking my bones, pal!”

Gwaine let him go after that, not without another pat on the back. Merlin then turned to greet the other three, giving each of them a tight hug and a warm smile. He understood while Gwaine loved this event, they rarely got together in that constellation around the holidays. Usually one or more of them were occupied otherwise, and even if they managed to show up they seldom had that much time together. Especially Elyan had been so busy with his job lately than Merlin had barely managed to see him.

“Are you sure?”, Arthur asked when Merlin zoned back into the conversation, “I don’t want you to have any trouble on my behalf.”

“Nonsense!”, Gwaine replied, wildly gesturing, “Gwen and Lance made way too much food, and we love making new friends! Come on guys, tell him we love new friends!”

“We love new friends”, Merlin, Elyan, Lancelot and Gwen replied with stupid grins on their faces, teasing Gwaine as usual. He stuck his tongue out to them but took the agreement anyway, putting his hands on his hips when he looked back to Arthur.  
  
“See? Invite them.”

Arthur gave them a little smile before he left the room while pulling his smartphone out of his pocket already. Merlin raised a brow in Gwaine’s direction.

“Oh he said he hasn’t seen his friends in a while, I told him to invite them”, Gwaine shrugged, “that’s fine with you, right?”

“I don’t know them, but if they're boring we have enough booze to fix that.”

“That’s my boy.”

  
  


Eventually Gwen asked to see the parts of the house Gwaine had just recently remodeled, and since Arthur joined the house tour the other three lads moved the conversation to the living room couch. 

Lancelot soon brought the conversation to their work. He only meant to ask a question, but it led to the two of them comparing their interpretation methods and talking about the results they found, and how they each had experienced the phenomena they researched and described in their own patients. Of course course they made sure to reveal no patient information, they were very serious about their job.

“Will you ever stop talking about psychology?”, Elyan interrupted in the middle of a debate about whether qualitative or quantitative methods were best to further explore the topic, “I’m really proud of you for being so smart, but my head is starting to hurt.”

“Oh I’m sorry”, Lancelot apologised, “I tend to get lost. You’re right though. What about you?”

“Yeah”, Merlin joined in, “how’s life been treating you?”

Elyan proceeded to tell them how well the law firm was developing and how many satisfied customers he and his partner had by now, and that there was no end of work in sight. But he loved it, it was his calling and it really made him happy to help people, to practise fairness. Merlin had thought that Elyan was the human personification of fairness, so his job fit him wonderfully.

Half an hour later the other three returned from their tour, and Gwaine announced that dinner was to be prepared, so they got off the cosy couch and swarmed out. Gwen and Lancelot went to warm up and serve the meals they had brought, Gwaine got countless bowls and plates for the snacks, and Elyan checked the fridge to see how his desserts were doing.  
Merlin turned to Arthur, who stood in the middle of the living room, a little lost now that all the other ones were gone. He walked over and slid an arm around his middle, then kissed his cheek with a smile.

“Are you alright? They can be a little much at first.”

Arthur shook his head.

“I’m fine, they’re actually really nice. Gwen and I geeked out over history earlier, I’m afraid you missed that”, he grinned.

“Hey it’s not my fault you snuck off.”

“Aww are you jealous I got a tour and you didn’t?”, Arthur teased with a grin, poking Merlin’s side.

“I’m not!”, Merlin defended himself.

“I think you are.”

“Clotpole.”

“Idiot.”

“...wanna make the mulled wine with me?”

Merlin peeled himself off Arthur’s side when the others returned, and he walked over to the kitchen with him on his heels. Arthur put on the kettle while Merlin hung a bunch of teabags into a large pot and cut oranges and lemons. While the water boiled he carefully took a large glass bowl filled with punch out of the carrier box he’d brought, lifted it onto the counter and put the ladle next to it.  
They added the hot water, lemons, oranges, cinnamon sticks and a good amount of rum to the pot and stirred it for a while while keeping it on the hot stove. The doorbell rang conveniently just when they were done, so they let the mulled wine steep and went into the corridor to meet the newcomers Gwaine had just let in.

Arthur immediately went to hug the two men who gave him a similarly stormy greeting like Gwaine earlier, consisting of bear hugs and back pats. Merlin watched them carefully, they were dressed quite posh with expensive-looking buttoned shirts and dark jeans under their peacoats. One of them had wild golden curls like angels in church paintings, accompanied by a sympathetic smile. The other one was huge and almost as broad as the front door was wide, with a buzzcut and a mischievous gleam in his eyes that made Merlin think he would get along great with Gwaine.  
They noticed him once their greetings were exchanged and they looked past Arthur, and both of their faces lit up at the sight of Merlin.

“Merlin, isn’t it?”, the blond one grinned with an exchanged hand.  
“I’m Leon. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Merlin shook his hand with a smile, but before he could say anything the tall guy chimed in and pulled him into an unexpected hug.

“I’m Percival. It’s so nice to meet the reason Arthur cancelled all our tennis games lately”, he grinned, “and Leon’s right, he doesn’t stop talking about you.”

“Guys come on!”, Arthur complained with a blush on his cheeks and grabbed their arms, pulling them over to the living room.  
“We should introduce you to the rest.”

Merlin followed with a very satisfied grin.

  
  
Their friends _loved_ each other. Of course they did. Merlin and Arthur exchanged a few amused smiles over the course of the meal, they were all bonding so well, already making plans to meet up again and do something fun. Gwaine and Percival were just laughing and making jokes after their third glass of punch, and that only increased when they started with mulled wine.  
Leon seemed to get along well with everyone, but he talked a lot to Merlin, who was intrigued by his character, both so kind and loyal yet so cheeky. They told a few embarrassing stories about Arthur during the meal, and at one point he got so embarrassed that they all had to swear on their mothers’ lives that those stories were never to be told anywhere else.  
Elyan was the one that first began praising Arthur for his cookies, until eventually the others joined in. Arthur explained how one month simply wasn’t enough Christmas time for him, and Elyan whole-heartedly agreed, leading them into a lengthy discussion about what the perfect timing for decorating, buying Christmas trees and baking cookies was.

  
  
“Okay folks”, Gwaine announced eventually when all of them were full to the brim, already sitting weird to ease the pressure on their stomachs, “I’m gonna take those plates into the kitchen. You can take the snacks and drinks to the couches if you want to, but remember: you spill, you clean.”

He got up and collected their plates and some of the other dishes, then disappeared into the kitchen.

“I’ll help him”, Lancelot announced and got up, loaded a bunch of dishes into his arms before he left for the kitchen as well. The others got up slowly, grabbing their mugs and glasses and the various snack bowls to relocate to the couch.

“This is so much better”, Gwen sighed happily once she flopped into the couch cushions, patting her full tummy with a satisfied smile. Merlin followed her example and hugged a throw pillow to his chest, closing his eyes with a little hum.

“I missed you all”, he smiled, and felt Gwen’s arm around his shoulders a second later.

“We definitely don’t hang out enough outside of school”, she agreed.

They fell silent for a few seconds, and Merlin thought the couch cushions became more comfortable with every second that passed.

The drinks, the full belly and the soft couch tried very hard to pull Merlin into a nap, he already felt his body become heavier, his thoughts became incoherent and the talk in the room turned into a soft hum. Surely nobody would mind if he napped for a few minutes, they’d be here for another few hours…

“Hey look up!”

Percival’s exclamation made Merlin open his eyes again, alarmed by the sheer volume of it. He followed the direction of Percival’s eyes to the middle of the room, where Gwaine and Lancelot stood frozen, each a mug of mulled wine in their hands, looking at Percival curiously. They followed his bidding and looked up to the ceiling, where a sneaky mistletoe with a large red bow hung.

“I forgot about that”, Gwaine admitted, then added with a grin: “I guess you have to kiss me, my dear.”

Lancelot, without hesitation, grabbed his friend’s shoulders, leaned in and gave him a fat kiss on the cheek, then pulled him into a hug.

“Aww”, came the soft reaction from the couches, while Percival and Arthur argued whether that counted as a mistletoe kiss.

Merlin felt a poke in his bicep, so he turned his head to Gwen with a raised brow, wondering what she wanted.

“Don’t fall asleep, or I will too. We can’t fall asleep at”, she looked at the clock on the wall, “nine pm. We’re not that old yet, we need to keep ourselves awake.”

“You’re right”, Merlin yawned and stretched his legs out, then sat up and shook his head a bit as if to shake out the sleepiness.  
“I’ll get us some water.”

He peeled himself off the couch and stepped over a few legs on his way out of the lounge area, then made a beeline for the kitchen. He’d been at Gwaine’s house countless times, so he knew his way around the many cupboards and drawers. He was filling two glasses with tap water, staring at the stream of water in trance (he’d had a good amount of punch and mulled wine, okay?) when he felt a hand on his hip and almost dropped the glasses into the sink. He didn’t, luckily, but his twitch was still enough to spill a bit of water onto his shirt.

“Hey there”, Arthur hummed behind him.

“You prick!”, Merlin called out accusingly, “you scared me!”

“You were zoning out, you would probably have scared _yourself_ at some point”, Arthur teased and carefully took the glasses from Merlin’s hands, then placed them on the counter safely before he slid his arms around him and pulled him close.

“It’s probably the punch.”

“Ey! If you’d have allowed _me_ to drive I wouldn’t -”

“Nah, I value my life”, Arthur interrupted with raised brows, earning him a playful punch to his chest.

“You ass!”

“I _do_ have a nice-”

“You’re such a brat”, Merlin said, rolling his eyes, but there was a barely suppressed grin on his lips.

“Hm...maybe. You’re cute when you’re tipsy”, Arthur replied and kissed his nose.  
“We should probably bring Gwen her water.”

“Hmmmm….”

Arthur chuckled and unfolded his arms to grab the glasses instead, waiting for Merlin to follow along before he headed toward the living room. The others were all curled up or stretched out on the couches now, talking and laughing about something Leon was showing on his phone. When Arthur and Merlin entered the room a few of them looked up, and Lancelot pointed at them calling:

“Your turn! Don’t move, you have to!”

Merlin looked up to find the pretty mistletoe just above his head, and rolled his eyes for the hundredth time that day.

“Guys-”

“It’s tradition”, Gwen grinned.

“You wouldn’t want to break tradition”, Percival agreed with a smile, and judging by Arthur’s low chuckle he was rather amused with the situation. So Merlin dramatically turned around to face his boyfriend, wrapped his arms around his neck and smooched him. He pulled back with a playful comment on his lips, but Arthur apparently didn’t appreciate it, since he chased him and kissed him again, properly, ignoring the broad variety of sounds coming from the couches. Merlin felt a little dizzy and his stomach felt funny, but he wasn’t so sure if that was the punch’s doing.

Arthur pulled away after a few seconds, licking his lips with a cheeky grin.

“You’ll have to make that punch sometime when I _don’t_ have to drive.”

Merlin tried to hide his blush by looking down as they went over to the couches, pretending not to hear Percival and Gwaine whisper ‘ _oh my god_ ’ in unison.  
He dropped onto the couch, waited until Arthur had handed Gwen her water and sat down next to him before he curled up against his chest, a satisfied smile on his lips. There was no doubt they’d overcome their food coma in an hour and become energized again, but for now it was cuddling and talking.

“I give you folks forty minutes”, Gwaine said as if he’d read Merlin’s mind, “then the party continues. I planned _Twister_ , and nobody gets to stay out of it.”


	9. Let it Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally December, and the gang meets up to go to the Christmas Market in the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> Hope you're all doing well! I struggled a bit with this one, I hope you'll still like it!
> 
> Today's prompts are "Sugar, Spice and everything nice" and "first snowfall"!

__

_Tuesday_

_December 2nd_

Merlin left the shower with a yawn, the hot water had barely helped him to wake up. He rubbed his fist over the fogged-up glass of the mirror to get a glimpse at himself. At least his eyes weren’t as puffy anymore, but it was obvious he hadn’t slept as much as he should have. His wet black hair was curling and falling into his eyes as it usually did after a shower, he knew better than to try and tame it. Instead he got dressed in jeans and a plain henley, then topped it off with one of Arthur’s giant Christmas sweaters before he walked into the kitchen.

The smell of coffee surrounded him almost immediately, which was weird - Arthur couldn’t have coffee. In facts, he didn’t even own a coffee machine. Merlin frowned and stepped onto the cold tiles, peeking into the room. Arthur was at the stove, currently pouring porridge in two bowls, but Merlin’s attention was on the island counter, where two wonderful, tall, steaming paper cups stood.

He had to confirm it really was coffee, so he went over and took the lids off and yes - one was a hot chocolate, the other one was black coffee.

“When did you get those?”, he wondered, put the lids back on and wrapped his hands around his cup.

“Good morning to you too”, Arthur replied on his way over. He placed the two bowls on the counter before he leaned in to steal a kiss from his boyfriend.

“I got them while you were showering. I could have decorated the whole house and changed my tires in that time as well, but I was a bit sleepy”, he continued with raised brows and took a seat on one of the barstools to have his breakfast.

Merlin pouted but followed his example, digging into the porridge before it got cold.

“I don’t take _that_ long. This is the first time you’ve even been up before me, don’t get cocky.”

“Touché. If I didn’t have work I’d probably still be asleep”, Arthur agreed and rested his head on his fist, suppressing a yawn. Seven am was too early to be awake, both of them agreed on that.

“I don’t wanna go.”

“Me neither”, Merlin sighed, poking around in his breakfast, “but at least I don’t have classes after. Oh by the way, Gwaine asked if we want to go to the Christmas Market in the city center tonight.”

“That’s a nice idea, when are you off work? I can go at four…”

“Me too.”

“I’ll pick you up”, Arthur decided, “then we’ll meet him there. Actually it would be nice to in-”

“It’s Gwaine. He’s already invited everyone”, Merlin interrupted with a grin.  
“Actually, my sister might be there too. I think you’d like each other.”

* * *

“Got any plans for the afternoon?”, Mordred asked when Merlin came back into the waiting room after finishing his last session, wrapping his scarf around his neck on the way. 

“We’re going to the Christmas Market in the city”, he replied with a smile, watching Mordred lean back in his chair exhaustedly. The poor guy had to stay two more hours and the telephone had rung non-stop, he really deserved a free afternoon as well.

“Aw man, tell me what it’s like, maybe I get to go sometime soon.”

“Of course.”

“And get me an autograph from your boyfriend”, Mordred added with a mischievous grin, “I might be able to sell it on ebay-”

“For fucks sake, Mordred, we’ve been over this”, Merlin sighed and threw the loose end of his scarf over his shoulder on his way to the door.

“Tell him I said hi!”

“Definitely won’t”, he called over his shoulder just before the door fell shut behind him, then he quickly took the stairs, he didn’t want to keep Arthur waiting.

The large black car stood out and Merlin found it immediately. He hurried over to it and had barely got into the passenger seat and closed the door when Arthur was starting the car again.

“How was work?”

“Exhausting. Difficult patients today. How about you?”

“Boring, honestly. But my day just got better”, Arthur said with a little smile in Merlin’s direction before he focused back on the road.

“You’re disgustingly cute today. Did I miss something?”, Merlin asked and stretched his legs out as long as the car allowed, then snuggled into the soft leather seats. He had never cared much about luxury, but this car was definitely worth its money, or at least the amount Merlin assumed it had cost. He felt very fancy being driven by his gorgeous, famous boyfriend in this big, expensive car, as if he was about to step out onto a red carpet or something. 

“It’s December 2nd”, Arthur replied as if it was the obvious answer, “I finally get to live out all of my Christmas dreams, and I get to wake up next to you several days of the week. Add some candy canes, mulled wine and Christmas lights and it’s perfect.”

His happy smile was contagious, and Merlin felt a bunch of excited butterflies dance in his stomach.

“I assume that means we’re decorating your flat someday this week?”

“Oh we’re definitely decorating _yours_ as well, Mister.”

They reached the city centre after a few minutes and Arthur managed to find a parking lot relatively close. Merlin texted Gwaine their location so they could meet up before they got out of the car and put their hats on.

It took exactly ten seconds until the group appeared in sight, and three more until Gwaine and Percival almost tackled them with their hugs.

“Hey lads how are you? I missed you!”

“It’s been four days, Gwaine.”

“Too long, Merlin!”

The rest of the group caught up and greeted them as well, some of them seemed to have been here for a while judging by their red cheeks and noses. One of them was a young woman with shoulder-long black hair sticking out of her beanie. She was wrapped in a long coat and a comically wide scarf that almost reached from her chest to her nose. She stopped next to Merlin, big brown eyes fixed on Arthur.

“Hey”, Merlin said and tugged on Arthur’s sleeve to get his attention, “this is my sister! Freya, this is Arthur.”

The girl nodded slowly, extending a hand for Arthur to shake.

“Hi…sorry, I thought he might be lying. But you’re definitely who he said you are”, she said a little stunned. Arthur just shook her hand with a charming smile and told her about the last greeting he’d gotten from one of Merlin’s unbelieving friends, resulting in Freya rolling her eyes in Gwaine’s direction.

“Sounds like a Gwaine thing. We love him like a brother…”

“...but he can be a bit over the top sometimes”, Merlin finished with a chuckle and a pat on his best friend's shoulder. Gwaine just laughed, he knew they were just teasing him.

They left the parking lot and walked over to the large city square where countless little booths had been built around a giant, three story tall Christmas tree in the center. Merlin slid his hand into Arthur’s as they walked past the beautifully decorated little booths where people sold countless crafted goods, foods and loads of hot drinks. The many fairy lights made the whole place glow against the dusk sky. It was magical.

Arthur and Merlin got some non-alcoholic punch on their way, and after fifteen minutes all the other ones had something in their hands as well. They were talking about their week, Christmas plans and whether they would be able to spend new year’s eve together.

* * *

Eventually Gwaine found the ice rink, and all the lads basically ran over to it and each rented a pair of ice skates. Merlin, Gwen and Freya followed slowly, leaning against the railing to watch instead.

“You should bring him for Christmas”, Freya broke the silence, offering Merlin her bag of roasted almonds. He took one, chewing slowly as he watched the horde of men stumble onto the ice, playfully pushing each other.

“I don’t know...we haven’t really talked about it”, he frowned. He’d love to introduce Arthur to his parents and spend Christmas with him, but so far they hadn’t talked about any plans, he didn’t even know what Arthur usually did. But he had family too, so he was probably planning to see them.

“Still, talk to him and mum and dad. They’d love him.” She turned to her other side where Gwen leaned against the railing, warming her hands with the cup of mulled wine she was holding while she watched her brother and her boyfriend gracefully slide around the ice rink while the others were still pushing and playing.

“We’ll spend Christmas with both of our families, actually, I’m already stressed just thinking about it”, she laughed, “but it was really fun last year. I would suggest we all meet around the holidays again, but that’s certainly impossible. Maybe new year’s is a good idea though.”

The siblings nodded quietly.

They watched their friends move on to racing each other. Percival tripped and face-planted into the ice, only to get up like nothing had happened and follow Arthur and Gwaine, who were going so fast that one uneven spot would probably send them flying. But they were laughing and basically beaming, so Merlin didn’t have the heart to yell at them and tell them to be more careful.

After a while thin little snowflakes started falling down, clinging to coats and eyelashes only to melt away a second later. Leon, Elyan and Lancelot were engaged in a serious competition on who could perform the best tricks on the ice, like skating backwards, jumping and making pirouettes. The other three had calmed down a bit by the time thicker snowflakes started to fall.

The three bystanders had finished their drinks and snacks, and Freya urged them to get into the rink too. It took some time to convince Merlin, he usually left ice rinks with a bruised bum, but as soon as the lads saw them coming there was no turning back.  
  
He carefully made his way over to the ice, eyeing it suspiciously before he dared set foot on it.

“Come on, it’s fun!”, Arthur encouraged. Merlin hadn’t even noticed him come over, but there he was, cheeks red from the cold air and eyes gleaming with pure delight.

“I tend to slip”, Merlin replied, desperately trying to keep his foot from sliding away underneath him, but strong hands grabbed his arms and safely guided him onto the ice.

“I promise you won’t fall, okay?”, Arthur smiled, calmer now that he’d gotten to run off all the excess energy with the boys.

“If you break your promise I won’t help you decorate the flat”, Merlin murmured while desperately clinging to his boyfriend. There was snow now on the ice, still melting almost immediately, but it looked like a tripping threat to him. Arthur didn’t seem to mind, he just slowly began to skate forward, pushing Merlin along. 

Over Arthur’s shoulder Merlin saw the other ones, all laughing and skating or trying to catch snowflakes with their tongues, and with a wide smile on his face he realised how happy he was.


	10. The Rich and Famous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur decorate their Christmas tree and go to a Christmas gala.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!  
> Christmas is almost here, only 5-6 more days depending on your country! I hope you're all doing well. :)  
> Today Merlin gets a glimpse into Arthur's life as a media figure, and I warn you - it's very romanticised and idealised, please don't hold it against me.  
> Today's prompts are "perfect" and "snowball fight".  
> Enjoy!

_Monday_

_December 15th_

Dean Martin’s _Silver Bells_ sounded through the flat as Arthur and Merlin were decorating the Christmas tree. Although they had decorated the flat a week ago, there had been no time to get a tree until last weekend, and Arthur had been upset about having to wait two full weeks of December until he’d gotten his beloved tree. At first he’d tried to convince Merlin to get one too (“you can’t have Christmas without a Christmas tree, darling!”), but since Merlin had spent the last three weeks almost entirely at Arthur’s place and it would surely stay that way for now, he’d eventually agreed it wouldn’t make much sense.

The tree had a nice string of lights wrapped around its branches already, and a beautiful mix of auburn and cream coloured ornaments were shimmering in the light. Arthur was currently deciding between two stars for the top, while Merlin sprinkled fake snow with glitter on top of the deep green needles. He stood on a ladder, because the high ceilings in Arthur’s posh home had allowed them to choose a tall tree.

“The living room looks like a set for a Christmas movie”, Merlin stated from his high point of view, indeed everything looked the perfect mix of festive, homey and neat.

“Hmm… are you done with the tree?”

“Almost”, Merlin replied and stretched out to reach the top branches, sprinkling some fake snow onto them before closing the bag with a satisfied smile, then began to climb down the ladder.

“Do you need help?”, Arthur asked, an audible grin in his voice, and before Merlin could worry what mischief he was up to now, he felt a hand on his butt — Arthur pretending to help him keep his balance — and rolled his eyes.

“Shoo! We have things to do, clotpole!”

“Ey!”

“You started it.”

Merlin hopped back onto the wooden floor and placed the bag with the fake snow in the large box of decorations right next to the tree, then looked over at his boyfriend.

“What’s next?”

“The star”, Arthur replied, looking between the tree top and the decoration in his hands critically, still deciding between the golden and the silver one.

“Silver”, Merlin decided, because he didn’t want to watch him think about this for another hour.

“You think? Fine. I’ll put that up there, and then we can get ready for the gala.”

Right, the Christmas charity gala. Arthur had — very carefully — asked Merlin the day after their Christmas market visit if he wanted to go with him, because he’d been invited as usually. He’d been very sweet about it, giving Merlin time to think about it and saying that he wouldn’t be mad if he said no.   
Merlin had been torn. So far there were only a few pictures of them online, from one of their walks through the city. Merlin’s face was barely visible and there had been little fuss about it, a few tweets but no articles or anything that would get attention. But this was a completely different caliber. There’d be cameras, lots of people, journalists and photographers. There’d definitely be talk about them after this.   
But Merlin had jumped over his shadow and agreed to go, because he was deeply in love with Arthur and proud of being with him, and as long as he wouldn’t be followed on the street he didn’t mind if the whole world knew.

* * *

The Pendragons’ tailor had fitted them each a new suit as soon as Merlin had agreed, with black dress pants and a differently coloured suit jacket. Arthur’s was a deep crimson red, while Merlin’s shimmered silver. Each of them had also gotten a bow tie in the colour of the other one’s jacket, and Merlin couldn’t decide whether that was extremely cute or painfully cheesy.

They _did_ look stunning in the suits though, the tailor hadn’t promised them too much. Merlin was kind of obsessed with the mirror for a few seconds, turning left and right to see how nicely it fit his form and how the fine thread shimmered in the light. The stylist — of course the Pendragons had a stylist — had magically turned his fluffy cloud of hair into soft curls that framed his face and made his eyes shine even more blue.

“Are you ready?”

Merlin’s head flew around at the sound of Arthur’s voice, and when he saw him it went offline for a while.  
Arthur looked amazing, the fitted suit complimented his athletic form and the red of the jacket brought out the warm golden hues in his hair that had been playfully tousled by the stylist. Merlin couldn’t believe he was about to step onto a red carpet with this man.

“Wow”, Arthur breathed, judging by his expression and how his eyes wandered over his boyfriend’s figure he was just as amazed as Merlin.

“Right back at you”, Merlin murmured, still a little stunned. Arthur walked over him and lifted his chin with gentle fingers to kiss him softly. Merlin kept his arms strictly on his sides, he was scared of any movement that could ruin the nice fabric with creases.

“Gentlemen, Victor is waiting with the car”, Charlotte — the stylist — interrupted from the door, “and Mr. Pendragon senior wishes you a good time.”

Arthur slid an arm around Merlin’s waist as he turned to face her, “did he call you?”

“You know him, he wants to make sure everything is going according to plan”, she shrugged and then turned to finish packing her bag.

“Isn’t he coming?”, Merlin asked quietly as they were putting on their coats a few seconds later.

“No, Morgana and him are busy in the company”, Arthur replied, “a meeting or something. They made a large donation, and now I get to smile into the cameras and show you off”, he finished with a contagious grin that spread over to Merlin, and they were still smiling when they left the house and got into the back of the car.  
  


* * *

  
The drive was way too short for Merlin to prepare mentally, with every turn that brought them closer to the location he felt his hands get sweatier, his stomach began to feel weird and he kept drumming his foot on the car floor nervously. A blind man would have picked up his behaviour, so even Arthur noticed it.

“Hey”, he said warmly and took one of Merlin’s cold hands into his own, “don’t worry. It’s not as bad as you think, you’re gonna do great.”

“There’s going to be so many people”, Merlin murmured and bit his lip.

“I mean in front of the entrance there’s usually a large - “, he stopped himself when he saw Merlin’s concerned expression, “a _tiny_ crowd, and inside there’s a few photographers and journalists, but mostly posh looking people drinking sparkling wine. And after eight pm the interviews stop and people get to have fun”, he finished with an encouraging grin.

Merlin took a deep breath and nodded, he could do this. He was a psychologist after all, he knew how to trick himself into calming down and how to make others believe he knew what he was doing. And maybe he’d actually enjoy it, who knew.

  
  


Countless cars were waiting in line, each dropping off its passengers so they could walk up the short red carpet up to the front door of the building, smiling into the flashing cameras before they disappeared behind the doors. Merlin absentmindedly wondered whether the women were cold in their sleeveless dresses, but fashion was probably more important than health at events like this.

When only one car was left in front of them Merlin had convinced himself that this wasn’t scary but rather exciting, and that he wouldn’t embarrass himself. 

“Remember, just smile and have fun, nobody will bite you and I’m right beside you”, Arthur smiled and leaned in to kiss him one last time for what would probably be a while. The car stopped by the fences and security guards that kept the crowd of reporters at bay, and a millisecond later Arthur had walked around the car and opened the door for Merlin. He had a dashing smile on his lips, but it didn’t look fake, and it caused Merlin’s heart to beat a little faster.

He unfolded himself from the backseat and straightened his jacket before he took the offered hand, put up his own _‘I’m-so-comfortable-and-relaxed’_ fake smile and followed Arthur along the carpet.

Flashes were so much brighter than they appeared on tv, and they seemed to come from everywhere. Merlin could barely see any people over the bright lights, and he had to count slowly in his head to stay calm. It was a little overwhelming, but Arthur’s warm hand was grounding him, and the beaming smile that he gave Merlin once his attention shifted from the cameras reminded him that everything was fine.

Nevertheless he exhaled a sigh of relief when the door closed behind them and quiet music and chatter replaced the clicks of cameras and the shouts of reporters.

“You did great”, Arthur murmured and squeezed Merlin’s hand gently before he led him further into the room. People were spread across the space, standing in loose groups and talking quietly. Arthur had previously explained that they’d have to wait for all guests to arrive, then there’d be a few speeches and time for individual interviews before there’d be food and dancing and lose conversations away from the ears of nosey reporters.

Arthur introduced him to a few businessmen and company owners he’d acquainted over the years, and Merlin smiled politely and engaged in smalltalk. He mostly listened to them talk about their work relationships and things he didn’t understand, but he used his time to quietly observe the behaviour of the people around. He was surprised that the majority of them seemed to converse sincerely, only a few seemed to put up a completely fake mask.  
  


* * *

  
The sparkling wine was wonderfully warm in his belly and calmed his nerves. They’d been here for about two hours now, talked to countless people and already heard a speech. Merlin had seen a few people he knew from the media, and it was surreal to him that he was in the same room as them. But people had been nice to Merlin, smiling and asking how he liked the event or what his job was, and depending on how trustworthy each person seemed he’d gone more or less into detail.   
Now he was sitting by Arthur’s side, one hand holding his glass while the other one was holding Arthur’s hand under the table.Leon and Percival sat on the other two chairs next to them.   
He was looking around the room trying to find all the kind of famous people while they waited for the next speech. Some of them caught his eye, but due to his trained smile they mostly just smiled back before they turned to their interlocutor.   
One person walking by made Merlin gasp though, as he was definitely not the caliber he’d expected here, and when he saw Merlin’s overwhelmed expression he even gave him a wink, accompanied by a grin before he left toward the door.

“Hey!”, Leon’s voice shook him out of his trance, “are you hungry? Because I am, do you know how many more speeches we have to hear?”

“Dunno, but Merlin looks like he just saw a ghost”, Percival chuckled, and Merlin turned to them with big eyes, star-struck and gasping a little.

“ _Ewan McGregor_ just winked at me.”

Arthur raised his brows, Percival tilted his head curiously, and Leon just shrugged and sipped his drink as if it was nothing special.

“Yeah, he’s a nice guy, and some of the people here like to mess with unsuspecting fans.”

“You know him?”, Merlin asked unbelieving, leaning forward in Leon’s direction intrigued as if he was being told a secret.

“I don’t know him personally, I spoke to him once at an event, he probably doesn’t remember.”

“How do you like it so far, apart from Obi-Wan?”, Percival changed the topic before Merlin could reply, eyeing him curiously. They had come in when the first speaker was seconds away from starting, so they hadn’t had a change to talk before.

“Cameras are scary but the people are nice and mostly honest”, Merlin replied, ignored the remark and leaned closer to his boyfriend’s side again, “and Arthur promised to bite everyone who makes me uncomfortable, so I’m good.”

“I did not, idiot”, Arthur grumbled when his friends put up big, teasing grins.

“Aww look at you being a protective boyfriend”, Percival cooed.

“Shut up.”

The rest of the speeches were more or less the same, talking about how thankful they were for all the donations and how important sharing and helping each other was. Everyone listened politely, laughed at the parts that were supposed to be funny and nodded compassionately at the parts that were supposed to be sad, then clapped at the people who had just read out what, in 95% of the cases, had been written by their team. Merlin suspected that at least the organizer of the whole event had written his own speech.

They had successfully managed to escape the journalists, only one that Arthur knew personally had been able to get a couple words from them, in which Arthur had proudly stated that Merlin was his boyfriend and Merlin had told her how ‘impressed’ and ‘touched’ he was by all the kind people here who cared so much about others. He didn’t say that he believed it was just a big promo event, the big companies only donated to keep their reputation and not because they wanted to make the world a brighter place. He didn’t want to make a horrible first impression, and now that he was kind of involved with the Pendragons his words would probably have an impact on their press as well, even if it was small.

Percival had excused himself for a few minutes, and when he returned he had a fat grin on his face and sparks in his eyes.

“It snowed while we were listening to the speeches”, he told them, “and some very professional people are playing around like children in the yard. Come on, we definitely have to join them.”

“Percival”, Arthur admonished, “let’s just keep it down, okay?”

Five minutes later they were standing in the yard in a thick, fresh layer of snow. Percival had told the truth: people were playing in the snow like children. Merlin was a little concerned about his leather shoes but he didn’t have much time to think before he was hit by a snowball. He could barely make out the shapes and figures in the darkness, so he had no idea who was responsible for the quickly spreading wet patch on his chest. But Percival came to the rescue and fired a snowball right back into the darkness, receiving a shout when it hit its target.

“I’m awfully sorry!”, Arthur called out before he faced his friend: “will you stop??”

Instead of a reply Leon attacked him from the side, leaving a patch of snow on his shoulder. Arthur was perplexed for a second, and his expression was so funny that Merlin couldn’t help but laugh. Leon and Percival joined him, and eventually Arthur was grinning too. He got a handful of snow, pressed it into a ball and then hurled it right into Leon’s chest, who blindly threw one back and hit Merlin, and a snowball fight broke out.

At some point someone must have turned on the lights, because the next time Merlin looked up to actively take in his surroundings he could see the whole backyard, filled with business owners and celebrities who were throwing snow at each other as if they weren’t wearing expensive (and thin!) designer clothes outside in the middle of December.  
It was kind of unreal, seeing those people so carefree, but he didn’t have the opportunity to watch much longer because Arthur planted a snowball right in his face.

“Shit, sorry!”, he called when Merlin slowly and dramatically wiped the snow off his lashes and fixed Arthur with a fake death-glare, “it wasn’t on purpose!”

Merlin just grinned, looking left and right at Leon and Percival who grinned right back at him.

“Get him, boys.”


	11. Cuddles and Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a week of working around the clock, Merlin and Arthur finally get to spend a day together. They get comfortable, watch movies, and Arthur confesses a few things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!  
> I finally caught up with all your lovely comments, thank you so much for them! They make me smile a lot and I'm happy you're enjoying this story so much. Today we're having a calm and cosy chapter again, so grab a mug of your preferred hot drink and snuggle up with the boys.  
> I actually have a lot of plans for the last two chapters, let's see how it goes!
> 
> Today we have four prompts: "Candlelight confessions", "lazy days", "holiday movies" and "blanket fort".  
> Enjoy and let me know what you think!

_ _

_ Saturday _

_ December 20th _

The whole week after the gala had been stressful. Everyone wanted to finish projects before Christmas, so Merlin suddenly found himself buried under a heap of assignments both his tutors in the university and Gaius wanted from him, and Lancelot pressed to finish their research so they could individually start interpreting their data after the break. 

Arthur had been busy as well; to secure the Pendragons a Christmas break they had to make sure everything was fine in the company and that loose ends were tied up before the new year began.

They had barely seen each other the rest of the week, Merlin had stayed in his own flat again because it was closer to work and uni, and all his books and materials were there. Their appearance on Monday night had inspired a few articles, including their short little interview, and photos of them were roaming the web. Merlin had acted against Arthur’s advice and read some of the articles and reactions, and overall it had been fine. People didn’t seem to care too much. Some were wondering how they’d met or who Merlin was, a few fans of Arthur were pissed that he’d ‘stolen their chance’ — Merlin was very amused by those — and of course there were a few disgusting homophobes that decided to share their opinion on social media. Merlin had dealt with enough of those since middle school to not feel personally attacked anymore, he knew they’d hate on  _ everyone  _ who didn’t match their ideal picture.

Even though there’d be much more fuss about the other celebrities and the gala itself, Arthur had insisted that Merlin had been driven to uni, work and even the damn grocery store by one of the Pendragons’ chauffeurs, Victor. Merlin had complained at first, saying how unnecessary it was, but when he’d gotten a few very curious looks on Tuesday on campus, he’d been very glad that he could flee into the large black car and be driven home.  
  


* * *

  
He was delighted when he could see his boyfriend again on Saturday.   
A week had felt like a month after spending so much time with each other previously, so they had agreed to not plan any special dates or activities for Saturday, they’d just hang out and catch up and probably cuddle a lot.

Arthur was just coming out of the kitchen when Merlin got into the flat at nine am. He made an adorable picture in the golden morning sun; his hair was a fluffy, undefined cloud and he still wore his pyjamas, consisting of an oversized grey t-shirt and Christmas themed pants. Of course they were Christmas themed.

“Good morning, sleepyhead”, Merlin greeted and walked over to get a kiss, then handed Arthur the cup of hot chocolate he’d gotten on the way.

“Did you just get up?”

“Hmm”, Arthur yawned, “long week. I’m still groggy, sorry.”

Merlin was already on his way to the kitchen, searching for the box of Christmas cookies to have some with his coffee.

“No it’s fine, we can lay low if you want. We could watch movies”, he offered and smiled triumphantly when he found the tin box, grabbed it and returned to the living room. 

Arthur had a sly grin on his face and his sleepy face appeared a little more awake when Merlin saw him again. He immediately went over his last words to find out what would have caused that reaction, but concluded that nothing extraordinary had been said and it was probably just Arthur being Arthur.

“What? You have that stupid grin on your face that usually means trouble. What is it?”

“We should build a blanket fort”, Arthur grinned back, looking like a child on Christmas morning.

Merlin tilted his head with an amused expression when he realised that Arthur was dead-serious, it was kind of adorable.

“We’re adults”, he replied, “I can’t even remember the last time I built a blanket fort.”

“That means yes?”

“Of course it means yes, get going.”  
  


* * *

  
Fifteen minutes later they had raided the couch and bedroom and built a comfortable blanket fort with tons of pillows and blankets, just big enough for the two of them. They angled the opening so that they could see the tv and the lit up Christmas tree, and part of the coffee table where they put their drinks, the cookies and a few candles for extra cosyness.

They started with  _ The Nutcracker _ , cuddled up together under the blankets as they followed the adventure that unfolded on screen.   
If anyone had asked Merlin in summer how he thought the rest of the year would be going, he would never have guessed that he’d be dating one of GQ Magazine’s  _ Men of the Year _ , and they would have snowball fights with other famous people and build blanket forts to cuddle and eat cookies in. It felt like a dream, too good to be true, but Arthur was very real next to him. This was actually happening and Merlin chuckled happily, very thankful to the universe that he got to have all this.

“What?”, Arthur murmured and lifted his head a little to look at him curiously. 

“I’m just really lucky to be here with you”, Merlin replied with a smile, reaching out to run his fingertips over Arthur’s cheek, but Arthur caught his hand and kissed it instead, then locked their fingers and kept it that way.

They continued to watch quietly for a while, captured by the movie and it’s colourful world again. Merlin had watched older versions all the time when he’d been a child, and he remembered having to hold Freya’s hand because she’d been so afraid of the rats. Merlin had been just as scared, but he’d been the brave big brother for her and assured her that their Christmas decorations would never come alive. They had still locked all their toys in the toy boxes after watching the movie, just to be sure.   
Arthur chuckled when Merlin shared that story, and in return told him that his sister, his friends and him had instead re-enacted the fight between toys and rats in the living room, and how they’d run around the Pendragons’ Christmas tree with wooden swords and bedsheet-capes.

“I don’t get how they interact with things that are added in later”, Merlin said eventually, “how do you pretend to get scared of something that’s not really there?”

“You learn it”, Arthur shrugged without his eyes leaving the screen, “it’s actually not that hard. You learn how people behave when they’re scared, you learn who your role is and what they would do in certain situations, and you just  _ act _ . The director gives you advice, too.”

“Did I just uncover your secret obsession?”, Merlin joked and sat up to grab his coffee cup to take a sip. Now Arthur turned to look at him, frowning a little bit.

“I took acting classes in college, didn’t I tell you that?”

Merlin rested the hand holding the cup in his lap and leaned forward, interested in the new information. 

“You haven’t, actually. How come? Did you want to be an actor?”

“I did”, Arthur nodded and propped himself up on his forearms, “I took business in my major and an acting minor. I was pretty good, actually.”

“But?”

“What?”, Arthur frowned.

“Well, you’re obviously not an actor, so what happened?”

Arthur sighed and dropped his head to the side, staring at the Christmas tree as he replied.

“My father always wanted me in the company, and while both of my parents are supportive of me having hobbies and exploring new things, they agreed I should do something more...stable and secure.”

Merlin reached out and wrapped his arms around Arthur’s shoulders, pulled him back until his head rested in Merlin’s lap and he could run his fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry.”

Merlin had gotten pretty lucky with his parents. They had been equally supportive of his psychology degree and Freya’s art degree, never comparing them or telling his sister to pick something else. They had trusted them both to find their way and the only thing that had mattered was that they were happy with their lives, and it had worked: Merlin was only a few more months away from becoming  _ Dr. Emrys _ , and Freya was pretty successful as a film storyboard illustrator.

Arthur was quiet again, and Merlin noticed how tensioned he was. He didn’t really react to him playing with his hair, just stared ahead at the screen.   
Merlin leaned down to gently kiss his temple and get a better look at his face.

“Are you alright?”

Arthur’s jaw tensioned and he took a deep breath, worrying Merlin a little bit.

“Do you remember when I told you I don’t want the job in our company anymore? I...don’t laugh, but I considered trying it again. It’s probably silly…”

Merlin plastered his hands to Arthur’s cheeks and turned his head up so he had to face him, then waited until their eyes met before he spoke.

“First of all, I would never laugh at you for something you’re passionate about”, he said, “and it’s not silly! You’re so charismatic and hard-working, I’m sure you’d be a great actor. So many famous actors started acting around thirty, I mean there’s Alan Rickman, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Statham...And who cares what your family thinks, it’s  _ your  _ life, and if you decide to go down that road I’ll happily be with you every step of the way, okay?”

Arthur looked a little perplexed at first, staring up at Merlin blank-faced for a few seconds before a wide smile spread on his lips, reached his eyes and made them sparkle beautifully.

“I love you.”

Now it was Merlin’s turn to freeze and stare down at his boyfriend.

“What?”

“I love you”, Arthur repeated, smile even wider and warmer now, and he reached out to grab Merlin’s hands and clutched them to his chest.

“You...you do?”, Merlin reassured himself, heart beating fast at the idea that Arthur’s feelings for Merlin were just as strong as the other way around.

“Yes, idiot”, he grinned and pulled Merlin down to kiss him, pure and sweet and tasting of chocolate and icing.

“I love you too”, Merlin murmured once he’d rebooted his brain, “and I’ll fight each of your family members that tries to keep you from pursuing your goals.”

Arthur chuckled and stole another kiss, then looked at Merlin with a lopsided smile.

“You might get the chance pretty soon, my parents asked if you want to come along on our annual Christmas getaway.”

Merlin raised his brows questioningly, this was the first time he heard about this. Arthur stared at him for a few seconds, expecting an answer, before it clicked for him too.

“Ah sorry, we have a house in Essex’ countryside, and every year from Christmas to New Year's we stay there. The whole family’s there: my parents, sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins...Leon and Percival as well, our families have been friends since before we’ve been born”, he explained, “it’s a little chaotic but also really nice. So, do you want to come? I promise they’re fine, my dad and sister can be a little much but mum and I will make sure they’re nice to you!”

Merlin raked his fingers through Arthur’s hair as he thought about the offer. He really wanted to meet his family, but spending seven to eight days with them right away might be a little overwhelming. And it meant that he wouldn’t see his own family between the holidays. Then again he’d spend a week with Arthur in a beautiful landscape, with lots of opportunities for romantic activities and cosy Christmas jumpers…

“I’d love to”, he decided and watched Arthur’s face light up with joy, “but then you need to come along to my family’s place on Christmas Day. And maybe after that we could drive to Essex?”

“Sounds wonderful”, Arthur smiled and sat up, then shuffled around so he could pull Merlin against his chest and lean back into the pillows with him.

“This Christmas is going to be my favourite in a lot of years”, he murmured and pressed a kiss to Merlin’s hair.

“Don’t raise your expectations too much, I can’t promise I won’t be clumsy again”, Merlin hummed, “maybe I’ll accidentally set the Christmas tree on fire.”

“You won’t, I’ll just hug you the whole time so you can’t do anything stupid.”

“Sounds good.”

Merlin snuggled into Arthur’s chest with a happy sigh, once more thankful his life had turned out the way it did.

“You just chose the next movie with your burning Christmas tree idea”, Arthur hummed when the end credits rolled.

“Which would be…?”

_ “Christmas Vacation!” _


	12. Christmas I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur spend Christmas Day with the Emrys family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> I hope everyone is happy and healthy! We're down to our second to last chapter, thank you so much for everyone who gave feedback and encouragement so far!  
> Today's prompts are "heater stopped working", "big sweaters and fuzzy socks" and "giving gifts".  
> Enjoy!

_ _

_ Thursday _

_ December 25th _

Christmas Day came fast, and somehow Merlin had actually managed to pack his bag and wrap all the presents in time. He’d changed the contents of his bag about a million times because he had absolutely no clue what he was supposed to wear on an expensive family getaway, but he’d eventually figured that his nicer clothes would probably be best.    
On Christmas morning everything was ready, and he locked the front door for the last time that week before he got on the bus to get to Arthur’s flat instead.

His father had texted just a few minutes ago to tell him there was trouble with the heating, they should better bring warmer clothes just in case, so Merlin had brought a Norwegian jumper to pull over his dress shirt if necessary.

Arthur was ready to go when Merlin rang, so he just waited on the stairs outside and watched the street. They had almost ten centimetres of snow by now, but since all the roads and pavements were cleared daily it was rare to see the actual amount of it in the city. It would be different in the country, and Merlin was really excited for the view of fields covered in a thick blanket of untouched snow.   
There were lots of cars in the street, probably on their way to see families or to leave for the holidays as well, and Merlin was definitely  _ not  _ excited for that part, stressed and impatient drivers on slippery streets.

The door behind him opened and he turned around to find his boyfriend with several large bags in his hands, balancing them to try and fish the car keys out of his pocket.

“Hey”, Merlin smiled and reached into Arthur’s pocket to help him get the keys, then walked over to the huge car in the parking lot and unlocked it.

“Are you ready?”, he asked when they loaded their bags into the trunk. He’d jokingly warned Arthur about his family, because as much as he loved them they could really be a lot, but he figured that Arthur’s anxiety might be heightened at the prospect of meeting new important people and he didn’t want to actually worry him.

Arthur nodded and ran a hand through his hair before he placed both hands on his hips.

“I think so. I just hope they’ll like me.”

“Of course they’ll like you, who wouldn’t?”, Merlin replied and stepped closer to press a kiss to his cheek.   
“Unless we stand around any longer, being late equals negative sympathy points.”  
  


* * *

  
Freya opened the door for them and took the presents so they could take off their coats and shoes in the hall. Merlin noticed her jumper — it was hard not to notice the vibrantly coloured Christmas turtleneck — and her fuzzy socks, and concluded that this morning’s problem wasn’t solved yet.

“Dad didn’t fix the heating yet?”

Freya shook her head.

“Try to find a repairman on Christmas”, she sighed, “it’s going to be warm clothes and tea for now. But Dad’s getting wood for the fireplace, he’s been out quite a while. Maybe I should see if I can help.”

With that she turned around and left in direction of the backdoor, leaving the presents under the tree on her way.

The cold air was now obvious, and with a shiver Merlin put on his jumper and woolen socks, then plunked on his cuffs and collar so that those parts of his shirt stuck out nicely. Arthur had done the same next to him, so they both looked cosy and warm when they went into the living room to greet the family.

Hunith immediately gave both of them warm hugs and told Arthur how happy she was to have him there, and how happy she was for the two of them. There was only little time for smalltalk before she excused herself again to go finish the meal so it’d be ready for lunch.

Merlin’s grandparents on his mother’s side were very polite and asked Arthur a bunch of questions about his job, his education and his hobbies, but nothing too deep or personal. His father’s mother on the other hand was way less restrained, she kept asking Arthur about red carpet gossip, if his family had any dark secrets and then went on about what a wonderful husband Merlin would make. She ignored her grandson’s objections and efforts to change the topic, until Merlin’s face and ears were pink and he was whispering an endless stream of apologies to Arthur, who didn’t even seem to be bothered. In fact, he looked rather amused, and he just honestly kept conversing with her and the others.

When Balinor and Freya returned from the garden, Merlin took the chance to escape the conversation and help his father with the fire instead. Freya happily took his seat next to Arthur once she’d gotten a mug of hot tea from the kitchen, and given the grin she had on her lips Arthur would hear even more embarrassing stuff.   
Merlin knelt by the fireplace with a sigh and began to pile logs from the basket into the fireplace along with his father.

“What’s wrong, boy?”

“Nothing...well actually I’m mortified by what they’re telling Arthur and what impression they’ll leave on him. I don’t want him to chase me away after this”, Merlin murmured and let his hands sink into his lap when the fireplace was well prepared.

“Don’t worry”, his father replied as he lit the fire, “he’ll survive it. And your mum will do damage control later, I’m sure. Have you ever brought anyone home who didn’t end up loving her?”

“No”, Merlin mumbled like a pouty child, just because his mum would outshine the behaviour of the others didn’t mean he liked being embarrassed.

“See. Now grab a biscuit and get comfortable until lunch is served.”

With a pat on Merlin’s shoulder Balinor got up and walked over to the couches while Merlin stayed and watched the flame lick over the logs, jump over to them one by one and grow in the process.

“I’m Balinor, what a pleasure to meet you”, he heard his father say, “Merlin is currently sulking because he’s scared you might run away after talking to his embarrassing family-”

“Oh my god DAD!”, Merlin called through the room and hid his face in his hands when the family laughed light-heartedly, Arthur and his dad being the loudest.

“Don’t worry darling, I’m enjoying myself”, Arthur giggled, “your grandmother knows a lot of  _ interesting  _ anecdotes…”

“Freya make them stop”, Merlin pleaded and lifted his head to look over at his sister, who just lifted her shoulders and mouthed ‘sorry’ with a grin. Great.  
  


* * *

  
As anticipated the mood shifted as soon as Merlin’s mother joined the conversation. She just had a calm and kind aura around her, and Merlin had really never met anyone who didn’t love her. Freya and him set the table while the others were still talking, and he was relieved when he heard that the conversation had shifted from embarrassing childhood stories to them actually getting to know each other.

Once the table was prepared they called the others over, and before he could sit down Merlin felt arms slide around his waist and Arthur’s cheek against his own.

“I really like your family, love”, he murmured, “they’re so bright and kind.”

Merlin smiled and wrapped his hands around Arthur’s wrists to hold him even closer as he leaned back against him.

“I’m glad. I’m also scared about what they told you.”

“Some very interesting things indeed.”

Merlin’s head snapped around so he could face Arthur and narrow his eyes suspiciously.

“If you tell anyone-”

“Your secrets are safe with me,  _ little Dragonlord _ ”, Arthur grinned and then quickly took his seat to escape Merlin’s death glare, that he now directed at his family instead.

“You told him about the dragon phase?!”  
  


* * *

  
After a more than filling and beyond delicious Christmas lunch they slowly migrated back to the couch. The fire had warmed the house by now, and on the couches right next to it it was rather hot, so jumpers were taken off and sleeves were rolled up.

They had eggnog — or in Merlin and Arthur’s case non-alcoholic punch — and were talking about this and that. Merlin snuggled up to his boyfriend despite the heat from the fire, his tummy was full and his eyes heavy, and his head fit perfectly between Arthur’s neck and shoulder. Arthur wrapped an arm around him and rested his cheek on Merlin’s head.

“When do we have to leave to be on time?”, Merlin murmured and let his eyes fall shut.

“We have a few more hours”, Arthur replied just as quietly, gently rubbing Merlin’s waist and thus making him even sleepier.

“You can sleep in the car if you want to, I don’t mind.”

“Nu-uh”, Merlin yawned and shook his head the tiniest bit, “I’m not going to let you maneuver through the hell of Christmas traffic alone.”

He received a kiss to his hair and smiled happily, then tilted his head up to demand a kiss. Arthur just chuckled and tickled his chin teasingly, to which Merlin replied with an impatient little groan.

“Hey lovebirds”, Hunith interrupted cheerily, “do you want to unwrap presents? Since you have to leave before dinner, I figured we’ll just do it sooner.”

“We’d love to, Mrs. Emrys”, Arthur said politely while Merlin peeled himself off him and straightened his shirt.

“Arthur”, she replied scandalised, “the only people who call me that are the kids in my class, you’re very welcome to call me Hunith.”

“Less talking, more unwrapping”, Merlin interrupted on his way to the Christmas tree. He usually wasn’t a materialistic person, but Christmas brought out the child in him, and that child wanted presents. The same was true for his sister, she was already sitting by the tree and sorting the presents by name.

Half an hour and lots of hugs and thank you’s later they were sitting in a pile of colourful wrapping paper, surrounded by presents. Everyone was happy with what they’d gotten, but Merlin’s favourites were definitely the gifts for both him and Arthur. Of course he’d told his parents that he would stay with Arthur over the holidays and that he was obsessed with Christmas, so they had gotten them a matching set of Christmas patterned pyjamas with red and white striped pants and green tops with little elves on them.   
Freya had given them a beautifully ornamented picture frame with a photo of them smiling at each other, snowflakes dancing around them. She must have taken it on their evening at the Christmas market without them noticing.

Merlin and Arthur had decided to wait with their own gifts for each other until the evening, since there would surely be another exchange at the Pendragons’ house.

Freya had gotten a new camera, mostly to capture inspiration for her art, but she instantly began to fill up the memory card with family photos. She had a way of taking them secretly, just like the ice skating photo, and Merlin was sure he’d get a lot of wonderful photos of his family — and probably lots of Arthur and him — after Christmas, when she’d gone over them and picked out the best.

They still had a little more time before they had to leave, so they refilled their mugs with punch and told some more — less embarrassing — family stories and laughed together.


	13. Christmas II and New Year's Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur spend the holidays in Arthur's family home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks!
> 
> I'm very sorry I went AWOL, I got hit by Christmas depressions and just couldn't bring myself to write. To make it up to you I added a few more days to this chapter, I hope you like it!  
> Thank you so much for reading, giving kudos and commenting! You're all very sweet and I hope you had great holidays and can start 2021 happy and healthy! ♥
> 
> This chapter's prompts are "matching pyjamas", "meeting the family", "you are my home".  
> And one last time: enjoy!

_ _

_ Thursday _

_ December 25th _

As anticipated the streets were packed with cars. Everyone was on their way to or from family, and the thin layer of ice and snow slowed the traffic down even more. Arthur had been tensioned since they’d entered the highway and Merlin had done his best to keep the mood light at first, but after an hour of slow driving and impatient honking they were both tired and annoyed.

Merlin sighed relieved when they finally pulled through a high gate into the large lot, crossed a gravelly forecourt before they stopped by the mansion. He leaned forward in his seat to take in the sight while Arthur parked the car, the house was huge. It looked luxurious with its grey stonewalls and the dark wood window frames, and the golden light that fell from the windows onto the thick layer of snow was inviting, urging them to come inside.

Once they’d collected all their luggage from the car they walked up the wide stairs to the front door, which opened as soon as they reached it.

“Hey boys”, Leon smiled and pulled each of them into a short hug to greet them. 

"I'm sure the roads were crazy, do you want a drink?" 

"I think we'll say hi to everyone first, thanks Leon", Arthur smiled and put down the bags he was holding. Merlin followed his example and added to the pile of bags before he shrugged off his jacket and hung it up, then took the hand Arthur was offering. He led him into the living room, which looked about as large as Merlin's whole flat. There was a gorgeous Christmas tree, decorated with fairy lights, red bows and light golden ornaments. Merlin followed Arthur past a long dinner table around a corner and found a few couches and armchairs neatly arranged by a fireplace, with lots of people talking and laughing. There were heavy bookshelves on the walls, they reached up to the ceiling and Merlin would definitely have to check them out later.

Arthur’s family noticed them coming closer, and the first one to stand up and greet them was a blonde woman. She was beautiful, with kind eyes that looked just like Arthur’s and a warm smile on her lips. Merlin knew who she was before she introduced herself.

“Hello Merlin, I’m Ygraine, Arthur’s mother”, she said and then gave both of them a gentle hug.   
“I hope your ride here was okay?”

“We made it here, that’s what counts”, Arthur replied and kissed his mother’s cheek before he looked at the rest of the family and then at his boyfriend.

“Let’s introduce you to everyone and then take our bags to our room, yes?”

Arthur’s family was a very diverse bunch. His father Uther wasn’t as warm and gentle as his wife, but he wasn’t mean either. He immediately asked Merlin about his job and ambitions until Arthur intervened with a strict tone, but Merlin was sure it would come up again. The man was kind of intimidating and he was glad when his attention was brought to the other family members. 

Morgana was a little more difficult to figure out. She was nice to Merlin, but over the course of the evening she made a few teasing comments, and Merlin couldn’t decipher how serious she was, so he was careful with what he said around her.

Arthur’s aunts, uncles and grandparents and Leon’s and Percival’s families were much simpler to figure out. A good amount of them were just like Merlin had expected them to be: a little snobby and used to their life in the higher class, but not particularly unfriendly. The other few were quite funny; Merlin could definitely see that Percival had inherited his character from his father, and Arthur’s grandfather was a rascal who really loved to mess with his family. 

After dinner and a while of talking by the fire Merlin had most people figured out, and knew who he liked or didn’t like. He calmly answered all of Uther’s questions despite Arthur and Ygraine rolling their eyes and telling him he didn’t have to ‘subject to his inquisition’, but he wanted to make a good impression and frankly, he didn’t have anything to hide or be ashamed about.

* * *

Christmas was over as fast as it had come. Merlin and Arthur had spent most of the night between the 25th and the 26th cuddling in bed in their Christmas PJs, talking about this and that until late. 

They’d explored the surrounding fields and forests with Leon and Percival the day after, stepping through deep snow and eventually just playing like children. They had returned soaking wet and freezing, but all grinning happily. Over the course of the week more and more snowmen were built in the backyard, even the older relatives had joined in to try and make the best one.

On the morning of the 28th Merlin was woken from his peaceful slumber by his boyfriend softly shaking his shoulder. He was talking excitedly, but Merlin needed a minute to wake up to properly understand what he wanted.

“Is there a fire?”, he groaned and tried to pull the duvet over his head, but Arthur was faster and held it in a tight grip to prevent him from hiding.

“Why should there be a fire?”

“Because you’re awake before me and you’re trying to get me out of bed”, Merlin murmured, grumpy when he realised that he was too awake to drift back into sleep now. So he opened his eyes, squinting at the sunlight falling in through the window, and eyed his boyfriend. Arthur knelt on the other side of the bed, shirtless and with messy hair, and the golden morning light made him look like a statue. Fine art.

“Wha- I told you, didn’t you listen?”

“No I was sleeping”, Merlin sassed and reached out for him, “come here.”

Arthur had the audacity to shuffle away and grin at him with a shake of his head. He crossed the room and opened the large wardrobe, then dug through it.

“Nope, get up. If we hurry we can be back for brunch.”

Merlin sulked for another minute, but once he realised it wouldn’t get him anywhere he peeled himself out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He opened them again when something hit the bed next to him, and he found a pair of thin pants lying there. Really tight ones.

“What the-”, he began, but Arthur came over with a pair of knee-high black leather boots, looking just as tight around the calves, and it suddenly made sense.

“These should be in your size, try them on”, Arthur said before he turned around again, presumably to get dressed himself.

Ten minutes later they were dressed in the tight and very flexible pants, slim boots and warm sweaters and jackets, wading through the deep snow on their way to a large building Merlin hadn’t paid attention to the last days.

“You didn’t even tell me you have horses”, he said once Arthur opened the gate for him and they stepped into the stable. 

“I didn’t? I’m pretty sure I did, you probably just didn’t listen.”

“Prick”, Merlin groaned as he followed him inside.

Merlin immediately loved the calm atmosphere. It was dim and quiet, he only heard the litter be pushed around by hooves and a quiet snort in one corner. Light fell in through a few windows and the now open gate behind them, so Merlin could see the eight boxes on both sides of the middle aisle.

“Good Morning ladies and gentlemen”, Arthur said and walked to the first box, leaned over the fence and looked into the shadow.

“Mum already fed you, hm? Then we can take them to the paddock with us.”

He turned back to Merlin, grabbed his hand and led him down the aisle to two boxes in the middle. One was inhabited by a large horse with a chestnut coat, the other one was bright white.

“Do you know how to handle horses, Merlin?”

“Would be a bit of a bummer if I didn’t at this point, huh?”

“...”

“My grandparents used to have horses. I can still take care of them and ride them, but I might be a bit rusty.”

“Awesome”, Arthur hummed, “you will take Aithusa, she’s a sweetheart”, he said pointing to the white one, “and I’ll ride Kilgharrah. You can get them out if you want and I’ll get what we need.”

Another thirty minutes later, both horses were brushed and saddled and carrying Arthur and Merlin through the snow toward the large paddock behind the house — seriously, how had Merlin not noticed that? — with the other six horses following obediently.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?”, Arthur asked, “you get to be outside and watch the sun come up on the back of those gentle creatures.

“Bit of a novelist today, huh?”, Merlin asked with a quirked brow, but ultimately he had to agree. It was nice, horses had a magic about them that couldn’t really be described.

“I usually come out here once or twice a week. Mum and Dad stay here if they don’t need to be in the office, but when everyone’s in London for work the folks from around here take care of them. My aunt and uncle, sometimes my grandparents.”

“Your whole family rides?”

“Yep. We basically grew up with them. We used to have a really old Shetland when we were kids, and Morgana and I were on him as soon as we could walk.”

“That’s sweet”, Merlin said and smiled at the idea of a tiny Arthur on a tiny pony, trotting around the backyard, probably with a toy sword in his hand.

Once they’d taken the other six to the paddock they trotted towards the forest, and followed a path just along the border of the field, with large snow-covered trees on the other side. The early morning sun made the snow sparkle and gave everything a beautiful glow, making Merlin feel like he was in a fairytale. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling the cold on his cheeks and the horse moving underneath him, one with nature just for a moment.

When he opened his eyes again and looked over at Arthur, he found him already smiling back, with that wonderfully fond expression that was reserved for Merlin only.

“What?”, Merlin smiled.

“I love you. And I love that I get to be here with you.”

Merlin’s cold cheeks heated up a bit and his smile only grew.

“But if we want to do the whole scenic tour before brunch, we need to hurry up a bit. Are you ready for a galop?”

* * *

The next two days had been spent similarly, they’d ridden out in the early morning, returned for a family brunch and then explored the city, or played games with the other relatives, or just cuddled by the fireplace with a book. Percival and Leon had joined them on their rides, and Merlin had been delighted to hear about their first experiences with horses because he’d been right: they had definitely pretended to be little knights on the back of their noble little Shetland steed.

The 31st of December came so fast that it surprised Merlin, he wasn’t ready for this vacation in paradise to be over yet. After they’d returned from the stable, showered and eaten they crowded the kitchen to help prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner, and Arthur, Leon and Percival carried so many bottles of alcoholic beverages in that Merlin eventually lost count and started to worry about how the night would end.

They made enough food to feed a small village, but Merlin was assured that it would be the same constellation of people as it had been the whole week. As soon as they were done in the kitchen they went out to prepare a fire bowl for later, and then the boys started a long discussion about which games would be appropriate for the night.    
Merlin had to argue that  _ Twister  _ would surely be a bad idea with the tons of alcohol the boys had bought, which led to more storytelling about things that had happened the last few years, and like that the day went by.

  
  


Arthur was  _ fantastic  _ at making cocktails. And he looked even more fantastic in his fancy attire, but the best part was definitely that he got more touchy and possessive when he drank his own creations. Over the course of them dating Arthur had never really had more than a glass of sparkling wine or a bit of red wine, but given the occasion and the fact that he didn’t have to drive anywhere he allowed himself a little more. While Percival and Leon became even sillier than usual, Arthur was basically glued to Merlin’s side and always either had an arm around or his hands somewhere on him, and Merlin did not complain. He loved it, even when Morgana made snarky comments about it, because who cared. He was gonna start this new year in Arthur’s arms.

After another very filling dinner, many more cocktails and games they eventually moved to singing and dancing, which was definitely accompanied by lots of laughing because the youngest four — Arthur, Merlin, Leon and Percival — started a dance battle and went to far extents to win. They all lost to Arthur’s grandfather, he stole the show with a tapdance.

Around midnight they all migrated to the backyard, around the lit fire bowl, waiting for the countdown and the fireworks to start.   
Merlin’s back was pressed against Arthur’s chest, his arms were wrapped around him and he was facing the fire bowl, perfectly warm from all directions. They were quiet, listening to the conversations around them and enjoying each other’s company, both lost in their own thoughts for a while.

“Twelve seconds!”, someone called eventually, and some people sprinted off to get something to toast with at midnight, but Arthur and Merlin stayed right where they were.

“I’m not ready for this to be over”, Merlin sighed and snuggled even deeper into Arthur’s chest.

_ “Ten!” _

“It’s nice here”, Arthur agreed, “we can always come back. But don’t you miss home?”

“I  _ am  _ home.”

_ “Seven!” _

“What?”, Arthur asked confused.

Merlin tilted his head back and turned it until he could see his boyfriend’s face, adorably confused, and he gave him a soft smile.

“You are my home, love.”

Arthur’s face lit up, his lips formed a wide smile and his eyes sparkled again, filling Merlin’s stomach with butterflies.

“ _ Three! _ ”

“I love you”, Arthur smiled, and Merlin said it back wholeheartedly.

_ “One!” _

“Happy new year”, they said just for each other when all the others called it out, and Merlin got to start his new year with a kiss from the most amazing man he’d ever had the honour to meet and who he loved so deeply, surrounded by friends and family and under a sky full of colourful fireworks, a kiss that promised so many more to come.


End file.
